From Adam Steltzner, who led the Entry, Descent, and Landing team in landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, comes a profound book about breakthrough innovation in the face of the impossible 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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“With his likable vocal personality adding to the appeal of the story, narrator Christopher Grove sounds tuned in to the ebb and flow of the narrative’s drama. The performance is a totally believable blend of his precise enunciation and conversational phrasing. Author Adam Steltzner is a hippie-musician turned scientist who makes his 10 years working on this project sound more like a personal journey than an engineering saga…The vibrancy in his perspective and in Grove’s performance makes this an inspiring lesson on how organizations of all types can achieve amazing things.”
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