NASA
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"Jim Collins’s memorable phrase in Good to Great—spark leaps to new levels: A BHAG is a huge and daunting goal—like a big mountain to climb. It is clear, compelling, and people “get it” right away. A BHAG serves as a unifying focal point of effort, galvanizing people and creating team spirit as people strive toward a finish line. Like the 1960s NASA moon mission, a BHAG captures the imagination and grabs people in the gut."
"Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua, China’s top science university. For his third term as the Communist Party’s general secretary starting in 2022, Xi filled the Politburo with executives from the country’s aerospace and weapons ministries. In the United States, it would be as if the CEO of Boeing became the governor of Alaska, the chief of Lockheed Martin became the secretary of energy, and the head of NASA was governor of a state as large as Georgia. China’s ruling elites have practical experience managing megaprojects, suggesting that China is doubling down on engineers—and prioritizing defense—more than ever."
"It’s another of the ways that the United States and China are inversions of each other. Americans expect innovations from scientists working at NASA, in universities, or in research labs. They celebrate the moment of invention: the first solar cell, the first personal computer, first in flight. In China, on the other hand, tech innovation emerges from the factory floor, when a new product is scaled up into mass production. At the heart of China’s ascendancy in advanced technology is its spectacular capacity for learning by doing and consistently improving things."
"Playing with Time, Space, and Love A lot of what I do with meditation these days has to do with changing perspectives, such as looking at space from a different perspective than the way we humans think about space from our little piece of Earth, or even through the lens of NASA’s most powerful eye, the James Webb Space Telescope. I use meditation to expand my mind from the Earth to our Sun, through the Solar System, across the Galaxy, and outward through the universe and beyond—visualizing my mind with no body, floating in cosmic space."