• 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

Rocket scientists aim high. They reach for the moon and beyond.Their dreams are gigantic in scale. They may not always achievetheir goals, but they know that you never hit a target that you don’taim at. (As hockey great Wayne Gretsky said, “You miss 100percent of the shots you don’t take.”) Sometimes their dreams cometrue, but even when they don’t, the achievements of rocket scientistsare great.Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer, aimed high. Maybe weshould say he aimed low, because his target was the South Pole. In1902, he traveled with Robert F. Scott to within 460 miles of thepole. In 1908, he commanded his own expedition but was forcedback after falling short of the pole by 97 miles. To have gone onto reach his goal would have meant certain death to his crew.Though Shackleton was criticized by some, he considered thesafety of his men to be of far greater importance than his statedmission. Scott, who was rigorously trained in the British navy, wasof the school that some loss of life was inevitable. Similar argumentshave been made in defense of the space shuttle, but as weshall see later, there are better, safer ways to explore space.On December 14, 1911, Shackleton’s dream was dashed whenRoald Amundson of Norway reached the South Pole. One monthlater, Scott and his party reached the pole but died on their returntrip. In the next few years, Shackleton, undaunted by the success ofAmundson, planned a daring adventure: the fi rst transcontinentalexpedition of Antarctica.In the attempt he made his greatest failure. He lost his shipbut saved every member of his crew in a dramatic two-year9Part I Dream10misadventure (told in a terrifi c book by Margot Morrel andStephanie Capparell: Shackleton’s Way).Shackleton failed in nearly every mission he launched, and yethe is considered today to be the greatest of the Antarctic explorers.He aimed high, but he changed his plans to fi t the circumstances—he didn’t believe in Pyrrhic victories, and he didn’t lose a man inhis command.He is a shining example of how we should approach humanexploration of Mars and beyond.Not long ago, a crater was discovered on the moon that circumscribesthe lunar South Pole. It was named in Shackleton’s honor.Someday, astronauts may explore the depths of Shackleton Crater—a region of eternal darkness—to search for a substance more preciousthan gold: ice.