As NASA’s longest-running Chief Administrator, Dan Goldin ushered in an era of “faster, better, cheaper” that prioritized safety while pushing the organization forward. He joins Robb and Josh to discuss his approach to innovation and kick some holes in fallacies like the iron triangle, which he calls “horsepuckey.” Goldin was at the helm of major projects, including a redesign of the International Space Station, and various Mars exploration programs.
Robb and Josh dig into his profound 50/50 rule for finding team members who can move the needle on innovation without holding an organization back, which has a surprising connection to the work of Michaelangelo.
In this episode:
- The 2nd edition of Robb and Josh’s bestselling book, Age of Invisible Machines: A Guide to Orchestrating AI Agents and Making Organizations More Self-Driving: http://bit.ly/4b7Rx7d
- Michelangelo’s sculptures: https://www.michelangelo.net/sculptures/
- Ben R. Rich's book, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
- Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG): https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-hairy-audacious-goal-bhag.asp
- The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement
- World Trade Organization: https://www.wto.org/
- Czinger, an American automobile manufacturer of hybrid sports cars: https://www.czinger.com/
- BRIDGE Bike Works, a full cycle manufacturer of carbon fiber bicycles, designed and manufactured entirely in Toronto, Canada: https://www.bridgebikeworks.com/
- The Invisible Machines episode, "S4E9 Digital Twins in an Agentic World” with Dr. Michael Grieves: https://youtu.be/KsL3w2bVjmw?si=KtKRxw9d_ofszFRs
Learn more about Dan Goldin, his initiatives, blog and speaking engagements - and do follow him on Linkedin - he’s got a lot of wisdom as is great at sharing it:
https://www.danielsgoldin.com/
The revised and significantly updated second edition of our bestselling book, Age of Invisible Machines, is now available for preorder on Amazon: https://bit.ly/4hwX0a5
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