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“Step one should be to question the requirements,” he says. “Make them less wrong and dumb, because all requirements are somewhat wrong and dumb. And then delete, delete, delete.” --Elon Musk
I’m in the middle of the biography of Elon Musk, written by Walter Isaacson (and I will write a book review soon). But this statement of Musk’s made me laugh out loud, because it is not only representative of his determination not to be limited by rules and requirements, but he has proved over and over again that the requirements are often absurd, time-consuming and wasteful.
His comment reminded me of the story of the woman who, like her mother, would cut off the ends of a pot roast before cooking it. When she was asked why she did that, she realized that she didn’t know. When she finally asked her mother why she prepared the roast in that way, her mother told her: the roast was too large to fit in the pan otherwise!
How many activities in our lives are limited by our preconceptions, our erroneous understanding of the rules, our fears of doing the wrong thing? How many things do we choose not to do because they are unfamiliar or seem dangerous, unpopular or silly?
One of the most liberating actions I pursued many years ago was imitating one of our group leaders in a skit at a conference. I decided to go all out, having no idea how I would be received. I danced around the room, said outrageous things, teased people—the crowd roared, because they knew exactly who I was roleplaying. My beliefs about always trying to do the right thing, about acting within the norms served no role in my actions. And I loved every moment of it. This was over 30 years ago and the memory still makes me smile.
Sometimes when we take risks, we make mistakes. Elon Musk is a risk-taker extraordinaire. My risk-taking genes are much more modest. But Musk reminds me that my ability to thrive, to exceed my own expectations are limited only by my imagination.
Can you think of a time when you did the unexpected or broke the rules?
Discussion (43)
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I should add that Musk always believed that if deleting something made the product or process work, he would re-instate it or try something else.
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I love how Musk always talks about the good and useful data they get when something goes wrong with a SpaceX rocket. He loves learning from mistakes, and that's a good lesson for my students. They are paralyzed with fear of not getting the right answer the first time.
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Most of us are conditioned in that way, fractad. It can be a challenge to break through that mindset!
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That is what I do. Sometimes it has been my job. Eventually it became a reflex, like reaching for the radio's tuning knob when a Nickelback song starts playing. It has saved time, money, schedules, projects, and subpoenas. It is known as the Great Nonsense Sieve:
Take all your so-called "requirements." Put them in the Great Nonsense Sieve. Shake it a little. The bits that filter through are requirements you can actually test. The rest can be pitched as Nonsense. If there are particularly shiny bits of Nonsense that you really like, put them in the Pestle and Mortar of Cogitation and grind for a while. Dump the Mortar into the Sieve and repeat. You'll end up with more testable requirements.
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I am praying that Trump wins (and the results are not stolen) and Elon is given the authority to "delete, delete, delete".
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