jujpen's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

2.5

racheljane96's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.25

gwallace93's review against another edition

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3.0

To me, the title was a bit misleading, or underwhelming. Most concepts presented are an engineering mindset, and as an engineer, many of these I am familiar with. Some concepts were definitely useful, but towards the end of the book, examples felt exhausting, as many were repetative and added very little value to the point.

funkbgr's review

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

terrypaulpearce's review against another edition

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2.0

If you haven't come across some of these principles already, and you love books with more anecdote than other content, you might find this useful. But for me, it would've made a better Oprah interview than a book. The anecdotes were told very plainly and didn't engage me at all, and the takeaways were very general and not (to me) very useful, like 'embrace uncertainty' and 'question assumptions'.

One of those books that would've made a good article.

kevenwang's review

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3.0

I guess rocket scientists do not like to explain things throughly. The thought process is a bit jumpy for me

breenmachine's review

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2.0

Book club read. Felt repetitive. A lot of the stories he shares I have already read in other books. Especially similar to "Where Good Ideas Come From" (which I liked way more). A lot of examples he used focused on Amazon and SpaceX.

dimayj's review

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1.0

This book offers a set of tools for thinking like a rocket scientist written by an astrophysicist who is also a lawyer and a professor. ⁣

The book features 9 strategies for “thinking like rocket scientist" divided into 3 stages; launch, accelerate, and achieve. The nine strategies include dealing with uncertainty, reasoning from first principles, thought experiments, moonshot thinking, asking the right questions, spotting flaws in thinking, testing and experimenting, and finally the role of failure and success.⁣

Although these seem like very informative topics to delve into, the book was a letdown for me. I found it long-winded, disorganised, and heavy on quotes and redundant anecdotes. I agree with one reviewer who described it as an "anecdote salad". For this reason, I have struggled to get through the book and did not really get any useful takeaways that would improve thinking or decision-making. Unfortunately, this is not a read that I would recommend.⁣

bootman's review

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5.0

Phenomenal book that really helps you look at problems and potential solutions from a new perspective.

benrogerswpg's review against another edition

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4.0

Enjoyed this one a lot. Some really great work tips and strategies. Really slow burn, picking up later in the book.

3.9/5