Think Like a Rocket Scientist

If you’re not sure what to be alarmed about, everything is alarming.”

Ask yourself, What’s the worst-case scenario? And how likely is that scenario, given what I know?

Writing down your concerns and uncertainties—what you know and what you don’t know—undresses them. Once you lift up the curtain and turn the unknown unknowns into known unknowns, you defang them.

You’ll also realize that in all likelihood, the things that matter most to you will still be there, no matter what happens.

And don’t forget the upside. In addition to considering the worst-case scenario, also ask yourself, What’s the best that can happen? Our negative thoughts resonate far more than our positive ones do.

The brain, to paraphrase psychologist Rick Hanson, is like Velcro for the negative but Teflon for the positive. Unless you consider the best-case scenario along with the worst, your brain will steer you toward the seemingly safest path—inaction.

the apparent safety that redundancy provides can lead people to make sloppy decisions.

If you’re making irreversible one-way decisions, go for higher margins of safety.

When we face uncertainty, we often manufacture excuses for not getting started. I’m not qualified. I don’t feel ready. I don’t have the right contacts. I don’t have enough time. We don’t start walking until we find an approach that’s guaranteed to work

absolute certainty is a mirage. In life, we’re required to base our opinions on imperfect information and make a call with sketchy data.

The path, as the mystic poet Rumi writes, won’t appear until you start walking.

Start walking because your small steps will eventually become giant leaps.

People are biased against the way things could be and find comfort in the way things are.

The keyboard layout most of us use was designed to be inefficient. Before the current arrangement, typewriters would jam if you typed too quickly. The QWERTY layout (named after the first six letters on the keyboard) was created specifically to slow down typing speed to prevent mechanical key blockage. In addition, for marketing purposes, the letters that make up the word typewriter were placed on the top line to allow a salesperson to demonstrate how the machine operates by quickly typing the brand name (try it out!). Of course, mechanical key blockage is no longer a problem. Nor is there a need to type typewriter as quickly as possible. Yet despite the availability of far more efficient and far more ergonomic layouts, the QWERTY arrangement still dominates.

Research shows that we become increasingly rule bound as we grow older.4 Events begin to rhyme. Days begin to repeat. We regurgitate the same overworn sound bites, stick to the same job, talk to the same people, watch the same shows, and maintain the same product lines. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure book that always has the same ending.

Process, by definition, is backward looking. It was developed in response to yesterday’s troubles. If we treat it like a sacred pact—if we don’t question it—process can impede forward movement.

Knowledge is good. But knowledge should inform, not constrain. Knowledge should enlighten, not obscure

“The five most dangerous words in business are ‘Everybody else is doing it.’”

argue for your limitations, and you get to keep them.

What do you assume you’re supposed to do simply because everyone around you is doing it? Can you question this assumption and replace it with something better?