• Home
• PART I DREAM
  • Imagine It
  • Work on the Big Picture
  • Aim High
  • BS!
  • Brainstorm
  • Create Design
  • Tell a Story
  • Think JFK
• JUDGE
  • Get Real
  • Play Games
  • Simulate It
  • Run a Thought Experiment
  • Know Your Limits
  • Weigh Ideas
• ASK
  • Ask Dumb Questions
  • Ask Big Questions
  • Ask “What If?”
  • Ask: “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?”
  • Ask Just One More Question.

• CHECK
  • Prove Yourself Wrong
  • Inspect for Defects
  • Have a Backup Plan
  • Do a Sanity Test
  • Check Your Arithmetic
  • Question Your Assumptions
• SIMPLIFY
  • Keep It Simple, Stupid
  • Draw a Picture
  • Make a Mock-up
  • Name the Beasts
  • Look at the Little Picture
  • Do the Math
  • Apply Occam’s Razor
• OPTIMIZE
  • Minimize the Cost
  • Minimize the Time
  • Be Mr. Spock
  • Make It Faster, Better, Cheaper(But Not All Three!)
  • Know When Bigger Is Better
  • Let Form Follow Function
  • Pick the Best People
  • Make Small Improvements
• DO
  • Learn by Doing
  • Sharpen Your Axe
  • Correct It on the Way
  • Do Something
  • Don’t Ignore Trends
  • Work on Your Average Performance
  • Look Behind You
  • Learn from Your Mistakes
• Epilogue

In Advice to Rocket Scientists, I talk about two bricklayers who areasked by a young boy what they are doing. The fi rst bricklayer isannoyed at the question and says, “Can’t you see? I’m laying bricks.”The second says with a gleam in his eye, “I’m building acathedral!”The fi rst bricklayer was a little-picture person. All he could seewas the tedious job of laying one brick at a time. The secondbricklayer was a big-picture person. He envisioned a beautifulcathedral in all its glory and he reveled in his task to help createit.Find your big picture and it will give your task perspective andjoy. The big picture focuses your mind and subconscious on a largerpurpose. It gives meaning to all the little tasks you must tend to inorder to achieve your goal.The Chinese philosopher Lao Tse said that “a journey of athousand miles begins with a single step.” If we could ask himwhere he was going, he’d probably describe a distant land of greatenchantment. If we could ask him how he expected to get there,he’d demonstrate silently by taking another step. Keep your bigpicture in mind when solving your problems. The big picture willhelp you take the next step—it will give you direction.Albert Einstein was always looking for the most general theoryto explain how the universe operates. He explained the mysteriousconstancy of the speed of light by his special theory of relativity.In this case “special” meant restricted. Later, he removed therestriction and came up with his general theory of relativity, whichexplained how gravity works. Einstein then tackled the mostdiffi cult problem of all: to develop a unifi ed fi eld theory to explainnot only gravity but all the forces in the universe.Einstein spent only a few years developing his special theory, adecade for his general theory, and the rest of his life searching fora unifi ed theory. Einstein was a big-picture person. He was notinterested in how a particular atom vibrates—he wanted to understandthe entire universe. His big picture gave him directionthroughout his scientifi c life. Not all scientists think Einstein wasright. But today, many are working on the “theory of everything.”Einstein’s big picture continues to inspire new generations.