Think Like a Rocket Scientist

“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning,” said Werner Heisenberg,

tactics for strategy. Although the terms are often used

This approach mistakes tactics for strategy. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, they refer to different concepts. A strategy is a plan for achieving an objective. Tactics, in contrast, are the actions you take to implement the strategy.

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve?

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve? This question requires abandoning the what and the how and focusing on the why.

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve? This question requires abandoning the what and the how and focusing on the why. The three-legged lander was a tactic, and landing safely on Mars was the strategy.

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve? This question requires abandoning the what and the how and focusing on the why. The three-legged lander was a tactic, and landing safely on Mars was the strategy. The incubator was a tactic, and saving premature infants was the strategy.

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve? This question requires abandoning the what and the how and focusing on the why. The three-legged lander was a tactic, and landing safely on Mars was the strategy. The incubator was a tactic, and saving premature infants was the strategy. If you’re having trouble zooming out, bring outsiders into the conversation. People who don’t regularly use hammers are less likely to be distracted

To find the strategy, ask yourself, What problem is this tactic here to solve? This question requires abandoning the what and the how and focusing on the why. The three-legged lander was a tactic, and landing safely on Mars was the strategy. The incubator was a tactic, and saving premature infants was the strategy. If you’re having trouble zooming out, bring outsiders into the conversation. People who don’t regularly use hammers are less likely to be distracted by the hammer sitting in front of you.

Once you identify the strategy, it becomes easier to play with different tactics.

the five-dollar challenge.35 Students break up into teams, and each team gets five dollars in funding. Their goal is to make as much money as possible within two hours and then give a three-minute presentation to the class about what they achieved.

Typical answers include using the five dollars to buy start-up materials for a makeshift car wash or lemonade stand and buying a lottery ticket.

teams that make the most money don’t use the five dollars at all. They realize that the five dollars is a distracting, and essentially worthless, resource. So they ignore it. Instead, they reframe the problem more broadly as “What can we do to make money if we start with absolutely nothing?”

Once you move from the what to the why—once you frame the problem broadly in terms of what you’re trying to do instead of your favored solution—you’ll discover other possibilities in the peripheries.

secret missed by many business leaders: The low-hanging fruit has already been picked. You can’t beat a stronger competitor by copying them. But you can beat them by doing the opposite of what they’re doing.

THE NEXT TIME you’re tempted to engage in problem solving, try problem finding instead. Ask yourself, Am I asking the right question? If I changed my perspective, how would the problem change? How can I frame the question in terms of strategy, instead of tactics?

Breakthroughs, contrary to popular wisdom, don’t begin with a smart answer. They begin with a smart question.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. —SHERLOCK HOLMES

For years, when I was attempting to persuade someone, I would back my arguments with hard, cold, irrefutable data and expect immediate results. Drowning the other person with facts, I assumed, was the best way to prove that climate change is real, the war on drugs has failed, or the current business strategy adopted by your risk-averse boss with zero imagination isn’t working.

Facts, as John Adams put it, are stubborn things, but our minds are even more stubborn.