#2: Making Products that Previously did not Exist
How the first synthetic cell and best rockets were made
J. Craig Venter won the race to sequence the human genome in 2005. Venter wanted to create the first synthetic cell by isolating the least possible genes needed for a living cell and using them to ‘generate’ a new organism. After failing many times with the approach of isolating what was needed, Venter turned the strategy on its head, starting with minimal genes and randomly adding genes until they got to a living, reproducing cell.
The MVP of the first synthetic cell was built not by starting with a large roadmap, but with a few nucleotides and adding genes until what was obtained could be called a basic living entity.
Walter Isaacson, in his new biography of Elon Musk, describes the Musk algorithm that also emphasizes starting from the bare-bones version and then adding features/parts as needed:
“I became a broken record on the algorithm” Musk says. “But I think it’s helpful to say it to an annoying degree.” It had 5 commandments:
Question every requirement: Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from the “legal department” or “the safety department”. You need to know the name of the real person made that requirement. Then you should question it, no matter how smart the person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. Them make the requirements less dumb.
Delete any part or process you can: You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them you’ve not deleted enough.
Simplify and optimise: This should come after step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimise a process that should not exist.
Accelerate cycle time: Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I later realised should have been deleted.
Automate: That comes last. The big mistake in Nevada and at Fremont was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out.
Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk