Introduction: Unlocking the Rocket Scientist’s Toolbox

“Rocket science” is often seen as a synonym for the unfathomable—a benchmark of ultimate intelligence. Yet, its most valuable aspect is not the complex equations, but a unique way of thinking. This mindset enables rocket scientists to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable.

The insights distilled in this article come from a true rocket scientist—Ozan Varol. He once worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and was a member of the operations team for the 2003 Mars Rover missions Spirit and Opportunity. In his book Think Like a Rocket Scientist, Varol shares five core principles that are surprising—even counterintuitive.

We all fear failure and crave certainty. But what if these instincts are exactly what keep us from making great leaps forward? Let’s explore how seeing the world through a rocket scientist’s eyes can change everything.

Principle One: Success Is More Dangerous Than Failure

Success is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Consecutive wins breed complacency, blinding us to risks and warning signs—often with catastrophic consequences.

The most painful examples are NASA’s Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.

• Challenger (1986): The immediate cause was the failure of an O-ring seal in cold weather. But engineers had already observed erosion and damage to O-rings in earlier launches. Because those missions had been “successful,” the fatal flaw was reframed as “acceptable risk.”
• Columbia (2003): During launch, foam insulation broke off from the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle’s wing. This, too, was not the first occurrence. Foam shedding had been recorded on many prior missions, but since it never caused disaster before, the “anomaly” was normalized.

In both tragedies, past successes masked the role of luck, creating a false sense of safety. NASA began treating an experimental system like a routine shuttle service. This phenomenon—the normalization of deviance—turns deadly flaws into accepted practice through repetition. As Bill Gates once warned:

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

Principle Two: Stop “Failing Fast”—Start “Learning Fast”

“Fail fast, fail often” is a Silicon Valley catchphrase, but it’s dangerously misleading. In a high-stakes field like rocket science, failure itself has no inherent value. The real goal is learning.

A study found that first-time entrepreneurs succeed at nearly the same rate as those who previously failed. In other words, failure alone doesn’t improve odds of future success. The difference lies in whether lessons were truly learned. Too often, we fail to learn because we blame external factors (bad luck, poor market conditions) instead of reflecting on our own decisions.

We should celebrate not “failure” but the lessons distilled from it. Failure is an investment—data and experience we can extract—not a dead end to brush past quickly. As Elon Musk put it when describing SpaceX’s culture:

Here, failure is an option. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

Principle Three: Embrace Boredom—The Brain’s Most Creative State

Modern life has taught us to fear boredom. At the first hint of idleness, we grab our phones, filling every spare second with social media, news, or emails. We see boredom as a vacuum to be eliminated.

But rocket scientist thinking flips the script: boredom is a catalyst for creativity. When idle, the brain shifts from focused “convergent mode” to creative “divergent mode,” forging new connections across regions and sparking breakthroughs.

How deeply do we fear boredom? A 2014 study revealed that participants preferred to give themselves electric shocks rather than sit quietly with their thoughts for 15 minutes.

Yet history shows boredom as a cradle of creativity. Isaac Newton often fell into long “creative pauses” during lectures, leaving students bewildered. J.K. Rowling conceived the full framework of Harry Potter during a four-hour train delay. Inspiration often strikes not when clearing inboxes, but when doing nothing at all. Creating space for boredom is a key step toward creativity.

Principle Four: First Principles—SpaceX’s 90% Cost Reduction Secret

When Elon Musk set out to build rockets at SpaceX, he found that buying one cost tens of millions of dollars. Rather than accept this as industry truth, he applied first-principles thinking—breaking problems down to their fundamentals instead of relying on analogy or convention.

He asked: “What is a rocket made of?” The answer: aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. Then: “What do these materials cost on the open market?”

Shockingly, the raw materials accounted for only ~2% of the rocket’s typical price. The rest came from inefficient processes and layers of outsourcing. Musk decided to build rockets from scratch. By vertically integrating supply chains and producing 80% of components in-house, SpaceX slashed costs by an order of magnitude. They even borrowed parts from unexpected places—bathroom stall latches, race car seatbelts—turning convention upside down.

This mindset abandoned incremental 1% improvements in favor of revolutionary 90% cost reductions.

Principle Five: Certainty Is a Trap (Even Einstein Fell Into It)

Humans are wired to crave certainty. In prehistoric times, this instinct kept us alive. But in a fast-changing modern world, chasing certainty can hold us back. When we cling to “the one right answer,” we abandon exploration and close off possibilities.

Even Albert Einstein fell into this trap. Late in his career, he devoted himself to finding a “theory of everything.” He was deeply troubled by the inherent uncertainty of quantum mechanics, believing a unified theory would eliminate it. Ironically, this fixation may have limited the open-ended thought experiments and creative leaps that defined his early genius.

Instead, we must see uncertainty as a call to action, not a source of fear. Progress begins where certainty ends. As Nobel laureate Richard Feynman said:

I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.

Your Next Giant Leap

To think like a rocket scientist is to:

• See the Trojan horse of success for what it is.
• Mine failures for data, not just endure them.
• Wait for sparks of creativity in moments of boredom.
• Strip problems down to first principles.
• Find opportunity in uncertainty.

These principles are not just for launching rockets. They apply to work, life, and every bold step forward.

So—what mental model will you break first on your path to the next giant leap?