33: Space Exploration, Self Exploration, & asking the right Questions | Dr. John Charles

Show notes:

• John's Background
• A search for more information
• Johns work may not have been fun but it was gratifying
• What initially interested John in spaceflight
• How much human drama is involved in spaceflight intellectually and emotionally
• Published decisions are the result of negotiation and argument
• Process of discovering lunar module
• Logic prevailed in spaceflight
• Wanting to see the behind the scenes work
• Progressively more responsible positions
• Being able to ask the right questions to Discern true answers
• With knowledge comes responsibility to understand, differentiate what knowledge really means
• Develop critical thinking skills to understand the wonderful bounty of knowledge
• Ability to ask immensely simple questions, like Einstein
• Initial questions to ask oneself about something:
  • Do I know anything about this topic? Does what I'm hearing make sense based on what I know?
  • How do I find out what the reality is, so I can make an accurate judgement about this information?
• Trial and error in regard to the situation. How can I generalize from the experience?
• John's Highlights over the years
• How John sustained the drive
• The fire in the belly of working with NASA
• Weightlessness
• The next big thing? The Moon? Mars?
• Each stage gives you lessons to make the next stage successful
• What drives us to explore?
• Space exploration and Self exploration
• The Blue Marble, Earth rise credited with starting the environmental movement. They went to the Moon and they discovered the Earth
• The further you go out the more you can see what's inside
• "The farther back you look, the farther forward you are likely to see" - Winston Churchill
• Advice to his younger self: Patience, Preparation, and Persistence but only if you're interested in something because then you make your own lucky breaks
• Luckiness implies you have prepared for what comes your way, Study really hard but study what you're interested in.
• What am I interested in ? And how much?
• Try different things and see what interests you, and see what sticks. The thing you think about a lot are the ones you ought to be doing .
• John's gift to share: Know thyself. What could be better than doing something that's fun and gratifying and knowing the world is a better place because of it.