Freelancing is Rocket Science? Here’s Why
Always curious how to level up my freelance game, I was excited to read Ozan Varol’s book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist. At first glance, rocket science and freelancing have very little to do with each other – unless you are a freelance rocket scientist. (In that case, ping me. I have questions.) Looking closer, there are several interesting connections between the two.
But first, a confession: it took me months to get the courage to write this review. While working on a consulting project last year, I cold-emailed Ozan for help. He blew me away with his thoughtfulness and generosity. So much so that when I decided to review the book, I worried I wouldn’t do it justice. I was also nervous about tripping over copyright laws since the book is immensely quotable, which you should see for yourself. That said, I’ve read the book several times since buying it and think it has three key lessons that help freelancers, which I’d like to share here.
Uncertainty
First, a sizable portion of the book is devoted to dealing with uncertainty. With the term “rocket science” conjuring up images of complex formulas and precise solutions, it had never occurred to me how much uncertainty is actually involved in the field. When a rocket launches, the team doesn’t actually know what will happen. Any number of tiny things could go wrong—from the weather to a computer malfunction—costing lives, millions of dollars, and years of preparation that can never be recovered.
Looking at those stakes, the uncertainty of freelancing seems almost mundane. Our main risk is financial, though that can have sub-risks like the quality of our health, relationships, and time. The great thing about financial risk is that it can be quantified and hedged. Varol gives several strategies that rocket scientists use to deal with risk. Here is how we can adapt them to freelancing:
1) Get really specific about exactly what dollar amount would equal catastrophe
2) Cultivate multiple sources of income so we are not dependent on any single one, and
3) Give ourselves a wide buffer in our spending habits.
(Note: these have been translated from their rocket science names of quantification, redundancy, and margins of safety. The book goes into much more detail on all three than I can here.)
Creativity
This is a pet topic of mine and, if you’ve read my other writing, it’s likely no surprise that I think freelancing both attracts and cultivates creativity. In the world of rocket science, creativity sometimes masquerades under names like “innovation” and “problem solving”, both of which are essential to do crazy things that no human has ever done before (like go to outer space). Varol shows how aerospace and technology companies actually foster this innovation. Two key strategies from the book that freelancers can apply are:
1) Having diverse interests
2) Taking breaks between working on them
As in Range, Varol describes historic polymaths like Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci and shows how their experience in unrelated fields helped them uncover new insights in their core area. Rocket Scientist pushes this one step further by showing that a critical factor is not just wearing multiple hats, but also switching between them.
Like uncertainty, hat-switching is a core feature of freelancing. We do our own marketing, finance, tax, legal, sales, and any other number of corporate functions—in addition to our actual work. Being able to think holistically about the business while also diving into each of these verticals as needed seems like an incredible asset, though more research is needed to show how it impacts freelancers on an individual level.
Goals
No writing about rocket science and business would be complete without a mention of moonshot thinking. Here, Rocket Scientist definitely delivers. Between science lessons, Varol quotes a book I enjoyed in high school that tells a story of a lion hunting antelopes and field mice. The story goes that a lion is strong enough and smart enough to hunt both. But if it only chases field mice, the lion will eventually starve because it spends more energy chasing mice than it gets as a payoff for succeeding. Antelopes, by contrast, take more time and effort to chase, but can sustain a lion for a while when caught.
This lesson applies to just about everyone, but is important for freelancers to keep in mind because there can be so much busywork (see point 2 above). Varol gives time-tested strategies from rocket science to evaluate whether your goals are big enough to justify the effort used in chasing them.
Ultimately, the book was a really fun and insightful read—even to those who don’t normally consider themselves interested in rocket science (like myself). Stay tuned for more writeups of books I enjoyed and find relevant to freelancing here coming soon!
In the meantime, you can learn more about Think Like a Rocket Scientist here and subscribe to Varol’s newsletter here.
