A Goldmine Aus Gene Kranz (NASA - Mercury, Gemini, Apollo)

One thing that jumps out at you from "Failure Is Not an Option" is how sophisticated their simulation methodology was even 50 years ago. They would spend 16 hours a day in simulation and there were a dozen computers working simultaneously on the simulation.

"... math models and a simulated astronaut"

Bill Tindall had started weekly meetings on the descent phase in April and had released a barrage of Tindallgrams and assorted notes. Tindallgrams was the name given to Bill's comic and highly treasured memos of the techniques meetings he conducted from 1966 to 1970 to document key engineering and operational decisions.

"There is another thing about powered descent crew procedures that has really bugged me. Maybe I'm an Aunt Emma. Certainly some smart people may laugh at my concern but I just feel that the crew should not be dibbling with the computer keyboard during powered descent unless it's absolutely necessary. They will never hit the wrong button of course, but if they do, the results can be rather lousy."

The next day, we started a review of every crew computer keystroke and its effect throughout the descent phase.

He was one of the great pioneers of manned spaceflight.

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During the mission rules sessions, Buzz Aldrin was the crewman usually involved, demonstrating his knowledge on a variety of subjects and generally dominating the crew side of the conversations. (FYI, Buzz is a grad of MIT). Neil Armstrong seemed more the observer than the participant, but when you looked at his eyes you knew that he was the commander and all pieces assembled in his mind. I don't think he ever raised his voice. He just saved his energy for when it was needed. He would listen to our discussions and, if there was any controversy, he and Aldrin would try out our ideas in the simulators and then give feedback through Charlie Duke to the individual controllers. Buzz and Neil seldom took a strong position during the meetings, but they were good listeners. They knew enough about us to trust us, to give us the benefit of the doubt. Mike Collins used a different tactic. He worked directly with the trench and systems guys. By the time we got to the rules sessions, all the problems were ironed out. We published our first complete set of rules for the Apollo 11 mission on May 16, 1969, two months prior to launch.

With no landing simulation experience, the first set of rules represented the sum total of our knowledge from our meetings.

Simulation training is broken into two parts - nominal and contingency. The nominal training occurs early in the simulation period. It lasts only two to three days and is used to establish crew - controller action timing, locate the go-no-go decision points and exercise the procedures for the planned mission. The contingency training tests the crew-controller decision process in a mission environment while solving complex trajectory and systems problems. Training scripts are developed by sim-sup's team and problems are programmed into the simulators without the crew's or controllers' knowledge. The training environment becomes as close to the real thing as possible, with the training team testing the flight team's strategy, knowledge and coordination while probing into the psyche of the crew and controllers. Nothing is sacred.

Were it not for GK, I would know about this guy : Bob McCall - Space Artist.

Who Talks Like This?

"An outwardly sardonic Turkish man named Izzet" "who must have been a narcissistic prodigy" :

If you have time to sleep, you have time to do algebra
Didn't you kids lean this in kindergarten?

http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~coskun/
https://medium.com/@jeremyjkun/my-graduate-career-in-math-85fd4efb0fa9#.s5si561ir

BTW, Jeremy Kun is not only a math, but a poet as well. Consider :  If you want your career to grow beyond shuffling data around to meet arbitrary business goals, you should learn the tools that enable you to write programs that captivate and delight you. Mathematics is one of those tools.

The simplest and broadest truth about mathematics is that it revolves around proofs. Proofs

are both the primary vehicle of insight and the fundamental measure of judgment. 'Ihey

are the law, the currency, and the f‌ine art of mathematics.

An Indian Who's Really French - How Cool Is That?

https://www.birs.ca/events/2019/5-day-workshops/19w5062/videos/watch/201911201032-Ramassamy.html

How to Tell Your Story - Ethan Rasiel

From the author of "The McKinsey Way" :

How to tell your story
1) Articulate the problem you are solving
2) Focus on benefits, not speeds and feeds
3) Minimize jargon and calibrate to a mainstream audience
4) Have a point of view — not just a product
5) Know your competition and be very different
6) Have a firepole pitch

What is PR : It's not the ads - it's a way to influence a target audience - to take action - like go to your website - customers, employees, government policy makers - sounds like advertising, but it's not - ads - whether in print or TV - are what you're usually trying to flip through - PR is getting into the editorial content - working with editors and reporters, etc.

FYI, Spin City is a whole show about a PR team.