From Adam Steltzner, who led the Entry, Descent, and Landing group in landing the Curiosity rover on the top of Mars, comes a profound publication about breakthrough innovation in the face of the impossible

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) houses a few of history’s most jaw-dropping feats of engineering. When NASA had a need to property Curiosity-a 2,000-pound, $2.5 billion rover-on the surface of Mars, 140 million miles away, they turned to JPL. Steltzner’s group couldn’t check their kooky about The Right Sort of Crazy: A True Tale of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Advancement remedy, the Sky Crane. These were on an unmissable deadline, and the world will be watching when they succeeded-or failed.

In the helm of this work was an unlikely rocket scientist and accidental leader, Adam Steltzner. After barely graduating from senior high school, he implemented his curiosity to the neighborhood community college to learn why the stars moved. Shortly he found out an astonishing present for math and physics. After getting his Ph.D. he ensconced himself within JPL, NASA’s decidedly unbureaucratic cousin, where success inside a mission may be the just metric that counts.

The Right Kind of Crazy is a first-person account of innovation that’s relevant to any­one employed in research, art, or technology. For example, Steltzner details:

·How his team learned to change from fear-based to curiosity-based decision building

·How to flee “The Dark Space”-the creative stop caused by fear, uncertainty, and the lack of a clear path forward

·How to show when we’re too deeply in love with our own ideas to be objective about them-and, conversely, when to fight for them

·How to foster shared respect within groups while still bashing bad ideas

The Right Kind of Crazy is a book for anyone who would like to channel their craziness into creativity, balance discord and harmony, and discover a signal inside a flood of noise.