A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation
by Adam Steltzner with William Patrick
Portfolio Books
Hardcover
From the publisher's website:
The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is home to some of history’s most jaw-dropping
feats of engineering. When NASA needed to land Curiosity—a 2,000-pound,
$2.5 billion rover—on the surface of Mars, 140 million miles away, they turned
to JPL. Steltzner’s team couldn’t test their kooky solution, the Sky Crane.
They were on an unmissable deadline, and the world would be watching when they
succeeded—or failed.
At the helm of this effort was an unlikely rocket scientist and accidental
leader, Adam Steltzner. After barely graduating from high school, he followed
his curiosity to the local community college to find out why the stars moved.
Soon he discovered an astonishing gift for math and physics. After getting his
Ph.D. he ensconced himself within JPL, NASA’s decidedly unbureaucratic cousin,
where success in a mission is the only metric that matters.
The Right Kind of Crazy is a first-person account of innovation that is
relevant to anyone working in science, art, or technology. For instance,
Steltzner describes:
·How his team learned to switch from fear-based to curiosity-based decision
making
·How to escape “The Dark Room”—the creative block caused by fear, uncertainty,
and the lack of a clear path forward
·How to tell when we’re too in love with our own ideas to be objective about
them—and, conversely, when to fight for them
·How to foster mutual respect within teams while still bashing bad ideas
The Right Kind of Crazy is a book for anyone who wants to channel their
craziness into creativity, balance discord and harmony, and find a signal in a
flood of noise.
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