Soviet Pencils

Some times when you’re in the business of building solutions for a specific customer, it can be hard to get things right.

Often times, the most difficult and troubling part isn’t actually building the solution at all — it’s properly understanding the actual customer problem you intended to solve.

Consider the Space Race of the 1960s.

Early on while planning the observational equipment to put aboard the space capsule, NASA realized they had a problem: Astronauts’ pens wouldn’t work in space.

So their top scientists set to work experimenting and devising ways to make a new type of pen that Astronauts could use for their space observations.

A functional pen that didn’t rely on gravity.

Years of material science and mechanical research ensued, millions of US taxpayer dollars were laid to rest, and eventually they made one that worked.

Meanwhile over in the Soviet Union, they solved the same problem a different way.

Instead of expending vast resources inventing a new solution, they went the opposite route: calling on a clever old utensil that had been around for generations.

They decided to use pencils.

Both solved the problem, one spent millions of dollars and years of research to get there. The other solved it with a known solution that had been around forever.

The lesson here is that invention and ingenuity are not the same thing.

Sometimes the solution to a new problem doesn’t have to be new at all.

It can be an old solution, considered in a new light.

Cheers,
Ramsey