Skunk Works Rules

"We are defined not by the technologies we create, 
but the process in which we create them."

- Kelly Johnson

Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, including the U-2, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, which are used in the air forces of several countries.Lockheed's Skunk Works division is responsible for some of the most radical breakthroughs in aviation. Its success can be attributed to a very small set of ground rules religiously followed at Skunk Works .

During World War II as air battles raged and America felt the need to aid its European allies, aerospace giants Lockheed created an idea incubator to develop urgent solutions to critical war problems. For added security, they intentionally set up their innovation research and development centre in a tent next to a plastics factory that pumped out disgusting smells. Lockheed R&D staff named it after the vile-smelling “Skunk Works” factory in the popular comic strip of the time, ‘Li’l Abner’.

In 1943 when visionary Clarence “Kelly” Johnson got the green light to create an experimental engineering department to begin work on the secret XP-80 Shooting Star jet fighter. Johnson and his team   in the tent  had designed and built the XP-80 America’s first jet fighter in only 143 days, seven less than was required. It was this project that marked the birth of what would become the Skunk Works with Kelly Johnson at its helm.

What allowed Johnson to operate the Skunk Works so effectively and efficiently was his unconventional organizational approach. He broke the rules, challenging the current bureaucratic system that stifled innovation and hindered progress. His philosophy is spelled out in his "14 rules and practices."

14 rules and practices are…

1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.

2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.

3. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).

4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.

5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.

6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program.

7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.

8. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don't duplicate so much inspection.

9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn't, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.

10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.

11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn't have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.

12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor, the very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.

13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.

14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay not based on the number of personnel supervised.

Not only that, but a model for rapid innovation was developed, which companies still use today. Raytheon, DuPont, Walmart and Nordstrom use skunk works to innovate. In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs leased a building behind a restaurant in Silicon Valley, installed twenty brilliant designers, and created the first Macintosh computer.

 Wonder why these rules were required at all can be understood from the following statement ..

 "There is a tendency today, which I hate to see, toward design by committee--reviews and recommendations, conferences and consultations, by those not directly doing the job. Nothing very stupid will result, but nothing brilliant either."

- Kelly Johnson

Source: 

-https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/business-areas/aeronautics/skunkworks/kelly-14-rules.html

- ”Skunk Works" by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos

    

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The Apollo Principle

 “A big mission that unites people in purpose.”

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

– John F. Kennedy

On May 25, 1961, in his address to Congress, President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the 1960s. This goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, later returning back to earth.

There is a great story of the janitor mopping the floor at the Space Station being asked what his job was in the organization. His answer was: ‘I’m helping to put a man on the moon”.

This highlights the Apollo Program’s 'secret sauce' - a big mission or goal to unite people in purpose.

Big crazy goals inspire and align people in ways that small goals can’t. They attract some of the best minds and open some of the toughest doors. Inside many human beings, there is something that loves the power of a big challenge. A big challenge aligns people under a common cause like nothing else can.

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The Obstacle Is The Way

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”-  Marcus Aurelius

In simple terms 

 as

“Failure shows us the way – by showing us what isn’t the way.”

— Ryan Holiday: Author of The Obstacle is the Way

American industrialist John D. Rockefeller was born July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. He built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and in 1870 incorporated the Standard Oil Company. By 1882 he had a near-monopoly of the oil business in the U.S.

At 16 he took his first job as bookkeeper and aspiring investor.  He was making fifty cents a day. Less than two years later the Panic of 1857 struck. The result was a crippling national depression that lasted for several years.

Here was the greatest market depression in history and it hit Rockefeller just as he was finally getting the hang of things. It’s terrible right? Real investors who supposedly knew what they were doing lost everything.  What is he supposed to do? Rockefeller later said that he was inclined to see the opportunity in every disaster. That’s exactly what he did.

Instead of complaining about this economic upheaval or quitting like his peers, Rockefeller chose to eagerly observe the events that unfolded. He looked at the panic as an opportunity to learn, a baptism in the market. But even as a young man, Rockefeller had sangfroid: unflappable coolness under pressure. He kept his head while everyone else lost theirs. Instead of bemoaning this economic upheaval, he quietly saved his money and watched what others did wrong. He saw the weaknesses in the economy that many took for granted.

It was this intense self-discipline and objectivity that allowed Rockefeller to seize advantage from obstacle after obstacle in his life, during the Civil War, and the panics of 1873, 1907, and 1929. Within twenty years of that first crisis, Rockefeller would alone control 90 percent of the oil market. His greedy competitors had perished and his doubters had missed out.

Rockefeller passed away on May 23, 1937, in Ormond Beach, Florida. His legacy, however, lives on: Rockefeller is considered one of America's leading businessmen and is credited for helping to shape the U.S. into what it is today.

 

Source:  ”The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage” by Ryan Holiday. 

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The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.”— Mortimer Adler

The famous Nobel winning physicist Richard Feynman understood the difference between knowing something and knowing the name of something and it’s one of the most important reasons for his success.

-He pioneered an entire field: quantum electrodynamics (QED).

-His work helping scientists understand the interaction of light and matter earned him a share of a Nobel Prize in 1965.

In fact, he created a formula for learning that ensured he understood something better than everyone else. It’s called the Feynman Technique and it will help you learn anything faster and with greater understanding. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to implement.

1. Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Write down everything you know about the topic on a notebook page, and add to that page every time you learn something new about it.

2. Pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Make sure you're able to explain the topic in simple terms.

3. Go back to the books when you get stuck. The gaps in your knowledge should be obvious. Revisit problem areas until you can explain the topic fully.

4. Simplify and use analogies. Repeat the process while simplifying your language and connecting facts with analogies to help strengthen your understanding.

Source:  "Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman."  by James Gleick's ,1993 

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Seek assistance Through "Master Mind" group

“I don’t know anything about history, and I wouldn’t give a nickel for all the history in the world,” Henry Ford told the Chicago Tribune in 1916.

During the world war, a Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which,among other statements, Henry Ford was called "an ignorant pacifist." Mr. Ford objected to the statements, and brought suit against the paper for libeling him.When the suit was tried in the Courts, the attorneys for the paper pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself, on the witness stand, for the purpose of proving to the jury that he was ignorant. The attorneys asked Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all of them intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while he might possess considerable specialized knowledge pertaining to the manufacture of automobiles, he was, in the main, ignorant.

Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following:

"Who was Benedict Arnold?" and "How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?" In answer to the last question, Mr.Ford replied, "I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over,but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than ever went back."

Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this line of questioning, and in reply to a particularly offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his finger at the lawyer who had asked the question, and said, "If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?"

There certainly was good logic to that reply. That answer floored the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realized it was the answer, not of an ignorant man, but of a man of EDUCATION. Any man is educated who knows where to get knowledge when he needs it, and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his "Master Mind" group, Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in America. It was not essential that he have this knowledge in his own mind. Surely no person who has sufficient inclination and intelligence to read a book of this nature can possibly miss the significance of this illustration.

Before you can be sure of your ability to transmute DESIRE into its monetary equivalent, you will require SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE of the service, merchandise, or profession which you intend to offer in return for fortune.

When you begin to select the members of your "Master Mind" group, endeavor to select those who do not take defeat seriously.


 Source: ”Think and Grow Rich”  by Napoleon Hill

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Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)

Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.

You work and work for years and years
You're always on the go
Never take a minute off
To busy makin' dough

Some day, you say, you'll have your fun
When you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have
In your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
The years go by as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.

(Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself it's later than you think)

Your heart of hearts, your dream of dreams
Your ravishing brunettes
Has left you now and she's become
Somebody else's pet (pity isn't it)

Lay down that gun, don't try my friend
To reach the great beyond
You'll have more fun by reaching
For a red-head or a blonde

Enjoy yourself it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
The years go by as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.

(Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself it's later than you think)

There's another thing I want to tell you too.

You love somebody very much
You'd like to set the date
But money doesn't grow on trees
So you decide to wait (Foolish Fellow)
You're so afraid that you will bite off
More than you can chew

Don't be afraid, you won't have teeth
When you reach ninety two.

Enjoy yourself it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
The years go by as quickly as a wink
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy yourself it's later than you think

Source:  Songwriters: Carl Sigman / Herbert Magidson, Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Sung by" Doris Day"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdMWHB6Kz3A

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Making Of a Happy Genius

In 1973, four-year-old Susan opened the cupboard of their guest room and saw many chess pieces fell out of a small bag. Just next to them was a rolled-up chess mat. She took the mat out and looked at the pieces with the intrigue comparable to any other child of her age. 

“What are these, Mummy?” Susan asked innocently, holding a piece in her hand and examining it.

“These are chess pieces, Zsuzsa,” she said, careful to not sound too enthusiastic, worried it might just kill Susan’s excitement. When parents are too excited to introduce something to a child, almost always, the child rejects it. I don’t think children do it consciously, it’s more a reflex action in the beginning. They hear parents saying no all the time and that no becomes their standard response too. And once children discover the joys of rebellion, they stick with their original ‘no’ for a long time. Klara Polgar, however, was better prepared.

Eight years earlier, in 1965, Laszlo Polgar, a teacher in Hungary, had started courting Klara by writing letters. He held two degrees in psychology and education and a PhD with his dissertation in developmental capabilities. In his spare time, he would play chess. During their courtship, Laszlo had told Klara that he was working on a lifelong experiment of making geniuses and that he “needed a wife to jump on board”. Klara too held three degrees and spoke eight languages. She wanted to marry someone who could match her intelligence. She’d liked Laszlo’s research, hypothesis, and his personality of course, and the two got married. From USSR, she moved to Hungary to be with Laszlo and they started out in a modest apartment in Budapest.

In 1969, their first daughter, Zsuzsanna –  also known as Zsuzsa, whose Western name was Susan Polgar – was born. Numerous times the two parents had reiterated their commitment to each other that the idea was not just to make a genius but make a “happy genius”. While attainment in life was important, a sense of fulfillment was even more important. When you feel that you are progressing in your desired area, you experience greater fulfillment and this in turns helps you to remain happy and motivated.

The moment to put the hypothesis to test had arrived with Susan’s fascination with the chess pieces. This was the beginning of a lifelong and insightful experiment. It might appear a matter of chance that Susan discovered the chess pieces but in reality,  it was anything but that. Klara and Laszlo had planned much before their daughter’s birth that they would carry out the experiment in chess where it would be easier to measure brainpower.

Klara Polgar opened up the chess mat and showed her four-year-old daughter how the pieces moved. Once again, she was careful not to sound too excited or make Susan feel that she should be playing chess because her parents wanted her to. Instead, she kept it low-key and fun. You can get anything done from anyone if you can make them think it’s their idea. In other words, when people, particularly children, feel that it’s their decision to do something, they will find the motivation to take it up and persist in the face of challenges.

In the evening when Laszlo returned home, Klara shared how Susan showed interest in chess. The two parents sat down, set up their chess set, and began playing a game. As children usually do when parents seem to be enjoying an activity, Susan – who was frolicking around until now – came and settled near the board. She was asking questions, hovering around her parents, and was beginning to get more and more fascinated with the chess pieces. They were careful not to ask her to observe their game or to play or learn it. They just played and enjoyed themselves (or at least pretended to enjoy). 

With great patience, persistence and dogged-determination, Laszlo began training Susan. The journey proved particularly hard. Not because Susan didn’t want to play chess or Laszlo wasn’t equipped to teach her, it’s just that chess was an entirely a male-dominated sport at the time. Laszlo and Klara, however, knew that their daughter could play as good as anybody else, male or female.

So often, when Laszlo would take Susan out to chess clubs, other players in the club thought that it was Laszlo who had come for a game and had simply brought his daughter along. They thought he was crazy for wasting his time teaching chess to his daughter. And when a seven or eight-year-old Susan would beat seasoned players, many would usually either refuse to shake hands in the end or make excuses like, “I am sick, I have a headache, I didn’t sleep last night,” and so on. This didn’t deter the father-daughter duo. On the contrary, it only strengthened their resolve to prove to the world that girls were equally good, if not better than boys.

Laszlo and Klara continued Susan’s intensive and specialized training. Meanwhile, two more daughters were born to them. Sofia Polgar in 1974 and Judit Polgar in 1976. Against all odds, they applied the same principles of parenting and training to Sofia and Judit. The result, you ask? Let me spell it out one by one:

Susan Polgar won her first Under-11 chess tournament at age four. At twelve, she won the World (Girls) Under-16 championship. At fifteen, she became the top-rated female chess player in the world. Going through the conventional Grandmaster (GM) norms applicable to men, she became a chess grandmaster at the age of twenty-two. In 1996, twenty-seven-year-old Susan Polgar was crowned the Women chess champion. 

While raising Susan, her parents – Klara and Laszlo – had learnt more about parenting and intensive training, which meant that they provided an even better environment and coaching to their second daughter Sofia Polgar who at the age of eleven became a world Under-14 girls chess champion.

Armed with more experience and insight, it was only natural that their youngest daughter, Judit, was brought up in the most conducive environment for making a genius. Her siblings played chess which meant that the game was all they mostly talked about at home, at the dinner table. Her parents no longer had the over-cautiousness and anxiety most parents do with their first child. Their parenting skills were sharpened by now; they could maintain a better balance between giving personal freedom to their child and living up to a discipline. As a result, Judit’s accomplishments exceeded their expectations.

At age twelve, Judit Polgar had thirty-five more points in FIDE rating (world chess rating) than the erstwhile world women chess champion. At the age of fifteen, she became the youngest chess grandmaster, far ahead of any male chess grandmaster throughout the history of the game. She is generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. At age ten, she not only took on chess grandmaster Lev Gutman, but won against him.

At age five, Judit defeated a family friend without looking at the board.

“You are good at chess,” the friend joked after the game, “but, I’m a good cook.”
“Yeah?” Judit said, without batting an eyelid. “So, do you cook without looking at the stove?”

All three daughters were home-schooled by Klara with a specialization in chess. They figured a long time ago (as an increasing number of parents are discovering today) that there was little sense in sending their children to a traditional school where regard for individual growth and temperament of each child was negligible. By the time most children come back home in the afternoon, they are tired and a whole day is gone. To expect that they then pursue intensive training in anything else at all is neither practical nor reasonable.

According to the eldest sister Susan, Judit was a slow-starter but very hard working. Laszlo too said that a happy genius is the result of labor + luck + love + freedom. He studied intelligence when he was a university student and later recalled: “When I looked at the life stories of geniuses, I found the same thing … They all started at a very young age and studied intensively.” Before even becoming a father, he had studied the biographies of 400 people from Socrates to Einstein and everyone in between and discovered the same pattern over and over again. “The experiment is not finished yet,” says Laszlo Polgar. “It began twenty-three years ago with a simple premise: that any child has the innate capacity to become a genius in any chosen field, as long as education starts before their third birthday and they begin to specialize at six.”

In my view too, the gist of scores of studies in child and human psychology spanning over several decades is as follows:

1. Every child is a promise.

2. That promise can be turned into a genius.

3. Such a genius can be a happy person.

4. Coaching begins when they are very young.

5. It must be fun and playful.

Source: ”The Childern Of Tomorrow”  by OM SWAMI

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