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The great American architect Louis Henri Sullivan (who influenced Frank Lloyd Wright) developed the concept that “form ever follows function.” This optimization principle stresses the primary goal of any design: the device should—first of all—work. Sullivan’s concept also unites the operational with the aesthetic; after all, he was designing buildings that were both efficient and beautiful.

Sometimes problems are solved by assembling a team. Aerospace companies, graduate schools, and government think tanks often rely on the ability of a group of experts to crack a tough problem.

One approach to finding the best solution to a problem is to start with a good solution and to then improve upon it. As World Chess Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker said, “When you find a good move, look for a better one.” The great success of the Volkswagen Beetle was based on this concept. Every year small changes were made—only those that improved the vehicle. For decades, “the people’s car” was the most popular in the world.

There is a wonderful story in David Bayles and Ted Orland’s Art and Fear about learning by doing. An art instructor tells his pottery class that the left side of the classroom will be graded on the total weight of the pots they create during the semester. At the end of the course, the teacher said he’d bring in his bathroom scales and weigh their pots: fifty pounds of pots would be an “A,” forty pounds a “B,” thirty pounds a “C,” and so forth. The right-hand side of the class would be graded on the quality of only one pot. Their job was to make the best pot they could and to turn it in for a judgment on quality alone.

Two lumberjacks were chopping wood. The first was a burly bear of a man with thick forearms. The second was a wiry, thin man. They were each cutting several cords of firewood for the winter.

In missions to other planets, it was learned that there will always be errors.

Two mission designers—one a mathematical type, the other a visualizer—were designing complex trajectory scenarios for a future interplanetary space probe.

There is a tendency to ignore small problems. The gas gauge is low—I still have enough—it can wait. Forget about it.

Rocket scientists have a term they use to describe the average expectation for a space mission. They say everything is “nominal” when things are going as planned, when the spacecraft is following the average trajectory out of thousands they simulated in their computers before flying the real mission.

Gramps (my Dad’s father) never looked through his rearview mirror when he drove. When asked about this he’d say, “What do I care about where I’ve been?”