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Note: The Bookrat email is a spin-off from Anthony Pompliano's Pomp Letter. You will receive all future book summaries here, while still receiving Pomp's finance, economics, and bitcoin commentary on The Pomp Letter. Our goal is to separate the two types of content to make it easier to consume.
I read one book per week. Last week’s book was When The Heavens Went On Sale by Ashlee Vance. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Wednesday morning.
Ashlee Vance spent years following Elon Musk, SpaceX, and numerous space startups around the world. He published his best selling book, Elon Musk, almost a decade ago, and has now followed it up with this book which focuses on the space startups. Vance does a masterful job showcasing "the misfits and geniuses racing to put space within reach." The book is not only educational, but it is hard to read without becoming insanely inspired to work on hard problems.
💡 Idea #1 — The current space boom would not be possible without Elon Musk and SpaceX. The company has been able to significantly drop the cost of launching rockets, proven that private companies could replace nation states in space operations, and helped inspire hundreds of founders to follow in their footsteps. Vance writes:
"SpaceX made people recalibrate their sense of limitation when it came to getting to space. The imaginations and passions of engineers and dreamers all around the world expanded. A turning point had occurred, and a space frenzy had been ignited."While the company will get a lot of credit, and deservedly so, it is clear to Vance that Elon Musk is personally responsible for a big portion of what is happening in the modern space race:
"But it was Musk who came out of nowhere with $100 million of his own money and willed SpaceX into existence. He proved that a driven individual aided by a company full of bright, hardworking people could match, and maybe one day best, entire countries."The results of Musk and SpaceX led to an inflection point in space rockets, companies, and investment. Vance explains:
"Engineers, entrepreneurs, and investors saw what SpaceX had accomplished and began to have their own wild visions of what they might achieve. They, too, could ride the wave of ever-progressing electronics, computers, and software and create their own space companies."💡 Idea #2 — Space remains one of the last areas available to humans that is unconquered. For that reason, humans are inspired to explore space, to adventure into the unknown, and test the limits of what is possible. Ambition is a prerequisite in the space industry. Vance writes:
"The chief engineers, the CEOs, the wealthy investors see themselves as being adventurers. They’re taking ridiculous risks in a bid to overcome every obstacle set before them, to overcome physics itself and to prove that even Earth cannot limit their wills. At a visceral level, they want to conquer something. On a more abstract level, something about space allows humans to perceive themselves as being part of a timeless story and casting their lot in with the infinite."💡 Idea #3 — Normal people don't change the world. It truly takes someone who is irrational, crazy, or obsessed. If you do normal things, you get normal results. If you would exceptional results, especially results that no one has been able to achieve, you will have to do things that no one has done before. Vance includes a quote from Air Force Brigadier General S. Pete Worden:
“There are two kinds of generals or admirals in the Pentagon. The majority of them are bureaucrats, which is useful most of the time because most of the time we’re at peace. But when you go to war, you want somebody that is going to change the game on the enemy and do something radical or different. The military knows this, so they keep a few people like this around. I was apparently one of those people. You know, ‘In case of war, break this pane of glass for the crazy person.’” — Pete WordenVance writes about Will Marshall, one of Pete Worden's recruits at Ames Research Center, who seemed to bend the world to his desire.
"Those adventures with Marshall often benefited from what his friends described as an “unreality field.” It seemed as though Marshall could generate good fortune from even dire situations and happy coincidences followed him wherever he went."Vance writes about Rocket Lab's Peter Beck and his bicycle with a rocket engine. Yes, Beck built a homemade rocket engine, strapped it to a bicycle, and then rode it at an insane speed. Normal people don't do this. Here is Vance's take:
"Let’s step back for a moment and appreciate the sheer stupidity of this all…He’d been cooking up homemade fuels in a homemade garden shed and making rocket engines from spare parts gifted to him by kind souls. It was that person who opted of his own volition to place a bomb between his legs and ride it."But don't take Vance's word for it. Rocket Lab employees knew they were working for an insane person. Here is how one of them described Beck:
“This is a man who had been obsessed with building rockets for twenty to twenty-five years. There’s nothing that will stand in that man’s way. That is what it takes to do something that is so fucking hard.” — Rocket Lab employee💡 Idea #4 — Innovation comes from thinking differently. The space industry had become filled with people who valued tenure, experience, and the status quo. It took outsiders coming into the industry to introduce new ideas and the courage to try them. Vance writes:
"[Peter] Beck felt more and more convinced that the aerospace industry had become complacent and fearful as the decades had passed. A small team with limited resources could accomplish an awful lot if it just thought about problems in inventive ways."A great example of this is the fact that engineers refused to use consumer electronics in rockets or spacecraft. Consumer electronics had drastically improved in the previous decades, and the cost of this hardware had dropped significantly, yet space engineers continued to use high-priced, "space grade" hardware. Vance writes:
"From the earliest days of the PhoneSat project, Marshall and Boshuizen felt as though they were onto something big. The satellite industry had bogged itself down by decades of tradition and staid thinking and almost completely ignored the huge advances in consumer computing technology."This use of consumer technology decreased the costs of satellites in an impressive manner.
"Just as SpaceX had changed the economics of rocket launches, Marshall and Boshuizen hoped to change the economics of satellites." "Instead of $1 billion, the Dove cost less than $1 million to produce."Dropping the cost of producing these satellites meant that the risk-reward changed. Companies could now launch them into space without needing a device that could last for decades. The replacement cost was low enough where a company only needed the satellite to last a few years and then they could replace the device with a new one, which included the latest technology.
💡 Idea #5 — Entrepreneurs have the ability to change the world and maybe it is their duty to try. Chris Kemp realized this once he joined NASA as the CTO. He describes the difference between a normal Silicon Valley company and a space company in this excerpt:
“It took me a while to process that I’d been working on stupid little companies that would make travel better or shopping better. Finally, after I arrived at NASA, I got it. I’m like ‘Wow. I’m the CTO of NASA. I can make very big things happen, and I should. In fact, it’s immoral for me not to take this opportunity and do anything but try to have the most impact I can possibly have.’” - Chris KempBut you have to be carefully of exclusively focusing on work. It is possible to change the world and still have a balance in your life. Kemp explains:
“Everyone needs four things. Your purpose, some other person to share life with, yourself so that you’re okay being on your own, and then friends and family. If any leg of the stool comes out, you’re wrecked. The people who prioritize work too much sometimes end up fired and are just left with themselves. They’re the ones that commit suicide.” — Chris Kemp
This was a fun book to read. It unpacks the space industry and how advanced everything is becoming. The human stories of various entrepreneurs made the book entertaining as well.
My first big takeaway is how important SpaceX has been. Just as Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile led to many people breaking the previous barrier shortly afterwards, SpaceX has been able to show private company rocket flight is possible. Hundreds of startups are being built off the backs of the SpaceX breakthroughs. Now that launch costs have been reduced, companies are starting to think about what is possible in space, not just in rocket launches, with the new unit economics. This is the definition of an industry-defining company.
My second big takeaway is how hard rocket building can be. Everyone thinks that rocket science is difficult, but Vance explains that this component of the work has been figured out for decades. The hard work is actually in the tedious mechanical activities that take known science and create operational hardware. This quote from Ben Brockert was perfectly put, “If you don't want to be here, go home. But don’t sit here and complain. I don’t want to be here, either.” Rockets are cool, but don't forget how hard the day-to-day work of engineering hardware to fly against gravity and enter orbit is. As Vance wrote, "The big joke is that the really difficult “rocket science” part of the problem, the physics, was figured out ages ago. The stuff holding the rocket back now is grunt work. What you need at this point are relentless problem-solving mechanics, not PhDs."
My third big takeaway was how private markets and economic incentives can accomplish things that were previously thought impossible by governments and public sector organizations. For example, Vance writes "Silicon Valley’s unending pursuit of wealth, control, and power has turned straight up. To put a fine point on things, space is now open for business. The heavens—like everything else—have gone on sale." Some people will read that and be repulsed, but capitalist will read those sentences and understand that the economic incentive, combined with a new level of inspiration and obsession, led to an explosion of innovation related to rockets and space.
My fourth and final takeaway is how the rocket industry is built on failure. Each company has high aspirations, but they set the right expectation — the first rocket is unlikely to work. Failure is expected. If you don't expect it, you will be quickly disappointed. Vance writes later in the book, "Decades of history show that newly developed rockets often blow up during their early flights. The aerospace industry almost prides itself on the failures because rocket science is supposed to be hard. The machines and the people who build them would not enjoy the same mystique if rockets always worked." There is a beauty in difficulty. There is a strength that comes out of failure. The rocket business is not for everyone.
As I mentioned, last week’s book was When The Heavens Went On Sale by Ashlee Vance. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Wednesday morning. Reply to this email with your thoughts, including what you agreed or disagreed with. I will respond to as many emails as I can.
-Pomp
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