Adam Steltzner is on a hunt for the truth.
It seems crazy, but it was the right kind of crazy.
Its the only limitationa lucid picture of the truth.
So how did they get there?
The journey of a 140 million miles began on a whiteboard.
Are you an iPhone person or an Android person?
Im an iPhone person.
And a lot of my colleagues are.
So does it also follow that you also use Macs?
I do, yes I do.
And I think it would split 50/50 between Mac users and PC platform users [at JPL].
Its crazy to think about the number of to-dos required in executing something like the Mars lander.
So how to do you keep track during the day of what it’s crucial that you get done?
For like eighty to ninety percent of my day, my work involves speaking with other people.
And so one of the most important tools I have is my calendar.
And my calendaring is always a challenge, evidently.
For us, we use Outlook.
And I cant say its flawless or even close to being flawless.
Our iPhones are the capture mechanism.
Since its such a collaborative effort, what kind of workspace do you have?
Do you have a private office or is most of the day spent in meetings?
BothI have a private office that I sit in sometimes.
Literally, a busy day, it will sometimes be 4 or 5pm before I get to my office.
So Im wondering how you save time without making compromises.
How can you achieve so much in a reasonable amount of time?
And sometimes you have to remember you dont need to take theroomto that level of detail.
You have to stop.
Theres a tendencyespecially with me and with curious engineersto want to actually start todosome of that solution.
To flesh it out into further detail.
And we joke at the lab that it means were having too much fun.
So well say, Were having too much fun here.
This persons gonna go and do this and thats their fun.
They get to go run that down.
Oh yeah, thats absolutely essential for two reasons.
So its very important that when you delegate, you delegate theownershipof that piece.
Its not a water-carrying job that you want to give out.
You want to get it out with its creativity, with its uncertainty, and with its ownership attached.
What everyday thing are you better at, do you think, than anyone else?
Youve risen to a certain prominence without coming from a hard academic background.
So that makes a lot of sense.
Aside from the phone and the computer is there any other tool or gadget that you cant live without?
I believe all of the things that humans dothat thedoingof them is a collaborative effort.
Very few great works come [from an individual].
And what does that mean?
Thats means we have to have groups of people who have alignment and similar understanding of what were doing.
So the whiteboard is essential in that.
For me, very rarely, essentially never.
I love listening to music; my home almost always has music playing.
But at work, mostly the music is the sound of human voices in discourse.
Out of curiosity, are you currently reading any book or novel that youre particularly interested in?
But right now Im readingDeath Valley and the Amargosaby Richard Lingenfelter.
Its a remarkably academically complete.
Amazing human stories of deceit and ambition and ruin, all within the setting of this great beautiful wilderness.
A lot of people probably think of you and your team as explorers in your own right.
Along that same train of thought, how do you recharge?
We go explore some place new and different.
American whiskeys, ryes, bourbons, also aide at times.
Of course.
What kind of sleep routine do you have?
Are you a night owl working at 2am or do you keep a regular schedule?
Im not a night worker.
But when the game is afoot I do not sleep very much.
Like 5 hours a night.
Whats the best advice youve ever received?
He admonished me to never let the fear of the great lows stop from pursuing the great highs.
And I have, and I dont.
Id ask a songwriter.
A songwriter whose songs are difficult for me to fathom.
It has to be approachable; it cant be too abstract.
The other 60% or so, I dont totally get those references.
Or even if hes gone totally abstract.
And I wonder how somebody births such a tune.
Leonard Cohen would be another great example.
These poems that become songs and the relationship between the poems.
Was it a poem first?
Was it a song first?
Was it a just a piece of poem or a piece of song?
I would tell them to follow Gentry Lees advice.
There isnt an arc.
And that cannot be undervalued.
Thats the most important thing: youve got to do the work.
Just do good work, do good work, do good work.
And then get right back to doing the good work.
That is the only thing Ive done and its worked out for me.
Some people might map out a grand strategy but thats not me.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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