Huge Problems and Moonshots

“If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things.” 

-         Larry Page, Google’s founder

I saw this reference to the paradox of the huge problem in a blog by an ex-Apple designer:

“A problem that feels sufficiently insurmountable will appear the product of natural law, to be accepted rather than challenged.”

That is so true. If it’s insurmountable, we just learn to work with that as one of the constraints. And soon don’t even think of it as a constraint…and so even when the time is ripe and the tools available, we don’t attack the problem. Sort of like that elephant that could be held by a chain when he was young but doesn’t realize he could break it with ease when he is older!

I guess that’s why the solution is eventually almost always found by an unknown guy, a non-specialist, someone too ignorant to know that it was an insurmountable problem!

On the other hand, it’s the huge problem that can generate passion. Like solving world hunger. Or curing AIDS. Which is why Google has a dedicated division, Google X, to take moonshots (Moonshots are named after Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon within a decade when there was absolutely nothing at the time that indicated it could be done). Moonshots are the kind of problem where, as Google X’s boss, Astro Teller, says:

“you lean instead on bravery and creativity — the kind that, literally and metaphorically, can put a man on the moon”

But taking moonshots requires a different mindset to solve problems. Because we are mostly used making incremental improvements, situations where:

“you inevitably focus on the existing tools and assumptions, and on building on top of an existing solution”

And existing tools and ways of working can only get you so far.

But for taking moonshots, you need to be the guy who is willing to take a totally different approach altogether. Which requires arrogance or ignorance (you don’t care who tried before you; or you don’t know who tried before you). And often such solutions will sound crazy. The trick is to come up with a solution that’s not too crazy, “something that justifies at least a close look at whether such a solution could be brought into being if enough creativity, passion, and persistence were brought to bear on it.”

But if it works, it’s worth all that effort…and then some.