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> Mr Musk’s development philosophy is that “if things are not failing, you aren’t innovating enough.” My boss used to keep saying "move fast and break things!"

> Mr Musk’s development philosophy is that “if things are not failing, you aren’t innovating enough.” My boss used to keep saying "move fast and break things!" Then a new guy seriously messed up and almost lost us a valuable client. The boss demanded an explanation. I said the new guy moved fast and broke things. He actually wrote that in the explanation to the client. I haven't heard that phrase from him since.

adolph 5y ago
Falcon 9's safety record would indicate that it is possible to have development cycles that push boundaries and maintain a high reliability production system. With regard to Musk's statements about the relationship between innovation and failure, below is a quote from the linked video about optimization in the development process, a quote that provides a more nuanced view than the pithy quote. Then, try very hard to delete a part or process. This is actually very important. If you’re not occasionally adding things back in, you’re not deleting enough. The bias tends to be very strongly towards “Let’s add this part or process step in case we need it.” But you can basically make “in case” arguments for so many things. And for a rocket that’s trying to achieve, trying to be the first fully reusable rocket…you have to run at tight margins because if you don’t run tight margins you get nothing to orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw
tooltower 5y ago
"move fast and break things", but make sure you know the consequence of breaking it and have that pre-approved by your bosses, labeled with a large font "disclaimer" sign written in red ...
mlindner 5y ago
The key corollary for "move fast and break things" is "but don't do it in production". SpaceX doesn't rapidly innovate things in production. Starship is not yet in production.
- Veedrac 5y ago
  Compared to oldspace they definitely do; Falcon 1 only flew a handful of times, and Falcon 9 has been continually upgraded. Musk has mentioned even the old F9 Block 5s (which are the newest block) are painful to refurbish versus the newer ones.
bpodgursky 5y ago
SpaceX has a really strong distinction between failing during testing and being reliable for clients. Other space players haven't figured this out.
leobg 5y ago
You work for Facebook?

adolph 5y ago

Falcon 9's safety record would indicate that it is possible to have development cycles that push boundaries and maintain a high reliability production system. With regard to Musk's statements about the relationship between innovation and failure, below is a quote from the linked video about optimization in the development process, a quote that provides a more nuanced view than the pithy quote. Then, try very hard to delete a part or process. This is actually very important. If you’re not occasionally adding things back in, you’re not deleting enough. The bias tends to be very strongly towards “Let’s add this part or process step in case we need it.” But you can basically make “in case” arguments for so many things. And for a rocket that’s trying to achieve, trying to be the first fully reusable rocket…you have to run at tight margins because if you don’t run tight margins you get nothing to orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw

tooltower 5y ago

"move fast and break things", but make sure you know the consequence of breaking it and have that pre-approved by your bosses, labeled with a large font "disclaimer" sign written in red ...

mlindner 5y ago

The key corollary for "move fast and break things" is "but don't do it in production". SpaceX doesn't rapidly innovate things in production. Starship is not yet in production.

Veedrac 5y ago
Compared to oldspace they definitely do; Falcon 1 only flew a handful of times, and Falcon 9 has been continually upgraded. Musk has mentioned even the old F9 Block 5s (which are the newest block) are painful to refurbish versus the newer ones.

bpodgursky 5y ago

SpaceX has a really strong distinction between failing during testing and being reliable for clients. Other space players haven't figured this out.

leobg 5y ago

You work for Facebook?