Engineering and design
- 01
Keep it simple.
- 02
Better is the enemy of good enough.
commonly Adm. Sergei Gorshkov; in Akin’s Laws it is Edison’s Law; ultimately Voltaire - 03
Analysis tells you what you think of your design. Testing tells you what the universe thinks of it.
Peter Stibrany - 04
Three points determine a curve. Also, any trend is linear when plotted on a log-log scale with a fat magic marker.
both are Akin’s Laws: Miller/Jordan’s Law and Mar’s Law - 05
In nature, the optimum is almost always somewhere in the middle. Distrust assertions that the optimum is at an extreme.
Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design, no. 6 - 06
Not having all the information is never a satisfactory excuse to not start.
after Akin’s Laws, no. 11 - 07
There is never a single right solution. There are always multiple wrong ones, though.
Akin’s Laws, no. 14 - 08
Design is based on requirements. There’s no justification for designing something one bit “better” than the requirements dictate.
Akin’s Laws, no. 15 - 09
The ability to improve or ruin a design occurs primarily at the interfaces.
I heard it from Akin, but Akin’s Laws credit it as Shea’s Law - 10
You can’t get to the moon by climbing successively taller ladders.
Mo’s Law of Evolutionary Development, Akin’s Laws no. 31 - 11
Capabilities drive requirements, regardless of what the systems engineering textbooks say.
- 12
The three keys to keeping a new crewed space program affordable and on schedule:
- No new launch vehicles.
- No new launch vehicles.
- Whatever you do, don’t develop any new launch vehicles.
- 13
You can’t make it better until you make it work.
- 14
The fewer moving parts, the better.
- 15
Without external review, your team is just talking to itself.
- 16
The law of large numbers does not apply to small numbers. And nothing happens in spacecraft in large numbers.
Peter Stibrany - 17
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.
Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe (1979) - 18
At that time (1909) the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation.
Igor Sikorsky - 19
It’s better to avoid problems than solve them.
Getting things done
- 20
It may not be your fault, but it is your problem.
- 21
Never find yourself in a fair fight.
after Col. David Hackworth: “If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.” - 22
We never seem to find time to do it right, but we always seem to find time to do it over.
I heard it from Jan King, but it is an old engineering proverb of uncertain origin - 23
Nine women can’t make a baby in one month.
after Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month (1975); earlier, Theodore von Kármán - 24
Fuck it, ship it.
- 25
If you’re not working on your best idea right now, you’re doing wrong.
- 26
I have patience, but not a lot of time.
Jim Caldwell - 27
If the “lessons learned” involves creating more documentation, consider learning a different lesson.
- 28
A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on. An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everyone.
Maxims 2 and 3 of the Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries, Howard Tayler - 29
Everything is air-droppable at least once.
Maxim 11, same source - 30
Anything is amphibious if you can get it back out of the water.
Maxim 32, same source - 31
The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.
popularized by Stephen Covey, championed by Jim Barksdale, originally an anonymous business proverb - 32
Process is usually a substitute for thinking, though with extremely attractive near-term results.
- 33
When under pressure, there are three kinds of engineers:
- The kind who don’t cut corners, and deliver late.
- The kind who cut the wrong corners, and get screwed.
- The kind who cut the right corners.
Be the third kind.
- 34
Any surface is a whiteboard for a sufficiently good idea.
- 35
Measuring something has the uncanny tendency of improving it. Corollary: be careful what you measure.
- 36
On process: it’s better to make the occasional mistake.
- 37
There are worse things than seeming irresponsible. Losing, for example.
People and teams
- 38
There is a difference between 10 years of experience and one year of experience 10 times.
- 39
There is nothing worse than responsibility without authority.
- 40
Anyone who has struggled to solve a problem never forgets it.
Elon Musk - 41
If you want to get one thing done right, do it yourself. If you want to get a lot of things done, find good people and put them in a position to succeed.
- 42
If you want to manage expectations, do so upfront. Don’t expect sympathy if you agreed to the approach early and change your mind late.
- 43
The smartest thing I’ve ever done is hire my weakness.
Sara Blakely - 44
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.
Colin Powell - 45
There are hunters and there are farmers. Know the difference, and know which one you are.
- 46
Categories of “People Who Do Things”:
- People who do things regularly
- People who do things occasionally
- People who did something once
- People who almost did something once
- People who are planning to do something
- People who have always been planning to do something
Three through six are collectively “strivers.”
Jesse Hiemstra - 47
Number one company culture rule: No Assholes.
- 48
Lead from the front. Though, if the officers are leading from the front, beware an attack from the rear.
- 49
If no one’s trying to poach your staff, maybe they aren’t any good.
- 50
Only hire “A+” people. Most management philosophy is about extracting middling work from middling people. It is a waste of time and bad for the soul to deal with “B” people.
- 51
Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules - 52
People leave managers, not companies.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, from the Gallup research - 53
Design the company around the best people. Don’t try to contort the best people to a structure that’s a poor fit.
- 54
How to hire engineers:
- Keep the team loaded at 1.2 to 1.5x their capacity to avoid shrinking.
- If projected work exceeds load level for more than a quarter, you can hire.
- Bring in the best talent you can find, on a “best player available” basis.
- Consider redesigning the project to maximize the efficacy of the talent.
- 55
Fun makes a difference.
Business and markets
- 56
There is a difference between being a trailblazer, and simply being first.
- 57
You can mine for gold or you can sell pickaxes.
a gold-rush adage of uncertain origin - 58
If you propose to do something faster, better, and/or cheaper than the state of the art, and you have no unique insight into the problem, you should very much doubt yourself.
- 59
Attack the opportunity.
- 60
The best way to make a small fortune in space is to start with a large one on Earth.
- 61
Core competencies become core rigidities.
Dorothy Leonard-Barton (1992) - 62
Flexibility is more valuable than efficiency.
- 63
The hidden objective has infinite influence.
Bruce Pittman - 64
If you have to invent the market, the applications, and the technology, you’re screwed.
Peter Stibrany - 65
You get the investors (and customers) you ask for.
- 66
Deals fall through.
- 67
Treat profit as a cost. Pay it first.
- 68
Great products are bought, not sold. You can screw almost everything else up if the dogs want the dog food.
- 69
Restaurants and space companies: usually not profitable on the first owner.
- 70
If you use the phrase “it’s not fraud” in describing something, it’s fraud.
Perspective
- 71
Be careful what you’re good at.
- 72
Stuff’s hard.
- 73
Talk is cheap. You are what you do, not what you say.
the second line is widely attributed to Carl Jung, though the trail is thin - 74
“Coulda, shoulda, woulda” has a 100% success rate as a perspective on any past decision.
- 75
Do unto others.
- 76
All’s well that ends.
- 77
A dark age is not just when a civilization has forgotten how to do something. It is when it forgot that they ever could.
Jeff Greason - 78
If no one has come back from the future to kill you, you can’t be that wrong about what you’re doing.
- 79
A ship is always safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.
John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic (1928) - 80
Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
Coach Taylor, Friday Night Lights - 81
It’s easy to criticise a pilot who flies blindly through clouds into the side of a mountain. But I’d rather die on the side of a mountain than in bed.
- 82
Be fierce about simplicity, not just in design, but in action, choice of projects, and life in general. Aggressive minimalism in all things.
- 83
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz, “Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day” - 84
If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.
Elon Musk - 85
Kindness is no guarantee of only good things happening, but it does mean that other good people will fight for you when bad things come.
Rohit Saxana - 86
Life is so very fragile. We are all vulnerable, and we will all, at some point in our lives, fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts, that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us, and when it is taken from us, we will be tested. It is these times, it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves.
Coach Taylor, Friday Night Lights, pilot episode - 87
Some things are worth fighting for, but the outcome of most fights is uncertain. If you care to fight for something, learn to live with uncertainty.
- 88
The mind is like a compiled program for which you’ve lost most of the source code.
- 89
All cravings pass if you let them.
- 90
Mice die in mousetraps because they don’t understand why the cheese is free.
origin unknown; it spread online around 2018