Learning from Google ... and the Marine Corps

In 1998, while still serving on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, I co-founded what later became a speech recognition web development company. The following year, I completed my military service, moved to Silicon Valley to join my three partners on a full-time basis, and unwittingly launched myself onto a personal and professional path centered on entrepreneurship and innovation.

You would think that the transition from military life to a high-growth startup at the epicenter of the "Internet Boom" would have been jarring. Ironically, it was not. It took me a while to realize that the Marine Corps and High-Growth Tech Startups share a common culture, and so my military training actually helped to prepare me for the crazy hectic life of a startup leader.

In Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines, author David Freedman seemed to agree with my assessment. His research indicated that Marines are uniquely trained to handle quick decision-making in uncertain situations with limited information. Perhaps more important--and contrary to popular misconceptions about Marines--the Marine Corps fosters a culture of de-centralized decision-making that empowers even the most junior enlisted Marines to make significant critical decisions, often with life-and-death consequences or even international policy ramifications.

Years later, former Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg wrote How Google Works to provide some valuable lessons on how to foster an "Internet Century" culture in a corporate environment. As you can see from their slide presentation below, they focus on the "smart creatives" that are so essential for modern business success.

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

The environment that enables companies to recruit such talent and allow them to thrive is in many ways the exact same environment that the Marine Corps has been pushing religiously for over two centuries. In this way, perhaps business executives seeking new ideas for how to turn their companies into innovative growth engines should look to both Google and the Corps for some valuable lessons?

Semper fidelis!

B-24 in WWII: 1 Plane Every 55 Minutes

Someone recently reminded me of a historical fact that stands as an example of human ingenuity: during the U.S. ramp-up for World War II, Henry Ford applied his assembly line techniques to help build 1 new B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft every 55 minutes! Working in two 9-hour shifts, Ford produced over 8,000 aircraft in about two years.

The video below highlights the power of this mass-production effort.

"Dream Bigger, Change History"

On October 31, 2013, I moderated a roundtable discussion at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, Austria. The "Explorers Panel" including Ariel Fuchs of SeaOrbiter and Bas Lansdorp of Mars One, both of whom are working on incredibly ambitious entrepreneurial ventures. The Festival was a 3-day celebration of technology innovation, with 50+ speakers, 25+ startups, and 2500+ attendees.

There were some technical glitches that prevented the introduction and conclusion from going exactly as planned, but overall the entire session went quite smoothly.

It consisted of 4 sections:

• Part 1: "Dream Bigger, Change History"
• Part 2: Highlights from my professional life
• Part 3: Panel discussion
• Part 4: Conclusion

Here is the video:

Since the final edit of the public video focused more on me and the panelists than on the constantly changing slides, here is the entire slide presentation:

Martin Jetpack

Following up my previous post about Jetlev, here's a land-based version called the Martin Jetpack. While it is not yet commercially available, it won't be long ...

Jetlev

Jetlev has got to be one of the coolest new toys/techologies in a while! Hopefully I'll get to try one in 2013.

Unique Inside Views of Google

I don't know who took these behind-the-scenes photos of Google, but they were forwarded to me recently and I think they are really cool. Click on each to see larger versions and to read the captions.

Ames Window

Earlier this year I had the privilege of spending some time with Michael T. Jones of Google Ventures. Among various topics we discussed, he helped me discover the concept of an "Ames Window". This is basically a special type of trapezoid that leads to a very cool optical illusion.

Here is a video that shows the illusion quite clearly:



Here is the same concept applied to a life-size room:

Felix Baumgartner & Red Bull Stratos

Like nearly 8 million other people around the world, on October 14, 2012, my family and I were glued to the Web (and Discovery News) watching Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team break several skydiving records as he jumped from his capsule at an altitude of 128,000 feet (roughly 24 miles!) and broke the sound barrier on his way down.

Not only did he succeed on virtually all of his record attempts (he came up ~10 seconds short of the record for longest freefall), but also the entire event was executed phenomenally well by Red Bull and all of its partners around the world. It was a huge publicity bonanza, continuing to garner public attention even weeks later. I wished that James Cameron, National Geographic, and their partners had executed nearly as well during his March 2012 record-breaking solo submarine dive to the deepest point in the ocean.

This is one of my favorite images from the historic day.

Here is an official Red Bull summary video.



Here is an official Red Bull video where you can faintly hear the sonic boom at :25.

New Wave-Adaptive Watercraft

The innovative folks at Marine Advanced Research seem to be making tremendous progress with their manned and unmanned watercraft designed to ride smoothly on just about any wave or sea state. I wonder if they can carry, launch, and retrieve a submarine. Hmmm ...

Gigapxl Project

I was recently introduced to the Gigapxl Project, which is REALLY cool ... even if you know very little about photography (like me). I won't do it justice trying to explain it, so I will merely encourage you to visit the site, learn more about their work, and enjoy the many stunning images. Below is a sample ... but to be truly appreciated you should click on them to see additional details.

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunset

SpaceShipOne and White Knight

Devil's Tower

Cameron Succeeds!

I wrote an earlier post about the "Race to the Bottom" of the world's oceans. Well, yesterday James Cameron succeeded in his solo dive to the deepest part of the world. Very exciting times ahead for ocean exploration and manned submersibles!

Race to Space (Dive)

While the media continues to push forward with the ongoing "Race to the Bottom" (of the ocean), there is another race picking up significant steam: the race to break the 50+-year-old record for sky diving ... almost high enough to be considered "space" diving.

Joe Kittinger's Record Jump
On August 16, 1960, Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger climbed aboard a gondola attached to a helium balloon and jumped out at an altitude of 102,800 feet (31,300 meters). Falling at close to super-sonic speeds through the icy cold upper reaches of the atmosphere, he parachuted safely to the ground. It was a military experiment to test human endurance in the possibility of pilot and/or astronaut high-altitude ejections. In the process, Kittinger set a world record that has stood for over 50 years.

Felix Baumgartner Test Jump
For the past few years, several men have attempted to break Kittinger's mark. An intense rivalry has developed between Frenchman Michel Fournier and Austrian Felix Baumgartner. However, with the backing of Red Bull, Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos project seems to have the upper hand. In fact, he will likely make the world-record attempt by mid-2012, probably right on the heels of James Cameron making his world-record solo submarine dive.

"Race to the Bottom"

Over the past few weeks, the global media has been making a big deal about a proclaimed "Race to the Bottom". This "race" refers to several individuals and companies seeking to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the planet's oceans, in a variety of different submarines. Of course, this is really not a race at all, since two men (Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh) already made the descent over 50 years ago as part of a U.S. Navy exercise. In fact, as Walsh likes to put it, this current frenzy is really just a "Race for Second".

That being said, there is no denying that this recent crop of adventurers and explorers is helping to rekindle a worldwide public interest in the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. Here is a brief overview of each participant in this "race":

James Cameron


The famed director of mega-hit films like the Terminator and Alien series, Titanic, and Avatar, has had a long-time fascination with the oceans, manned submersibles, and exploration in general. He is close friends with the recognized godfather of research submarines, Anatoly Sagalevich, he has made several descents to the Titanic, and he has produced underwater documentaries such as Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss. Overall, he has over 70 dives in deep submersibles. He leads a NatGeo-backed team that has spent almost eight years developing a one-person submarine specifically for the attempt to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench. If successful, Cameron will set the world solo diving record, and the team will boast the world's deepest diving active submarine.

Outlook. Cameron will likely make the full descent by the end of March 2012.

Richard Branson


In late-2010, sailboat racer Chris Welsh decided to honor one of his heroes, world-record aviator/sailor/explorer Steve Fossett, by taking up the challenge he was working on when he perished in a plane crash in 2007: the world solo diving record to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Fossett had commissioned Graham Hawkes to design a submarine specifically for the world-record attempt, but he died before the sub got to its sea trials. Welsh purchased the unfinished sub from Fossett's estate, hired Hawkes to complete the project, and partnered with Richard Branson, Fossett's long-time partner, to create Virgin Oceanic ("VO"). While Branson has garnered the media spotlight during this "race", VO still remains Welsh's passion project, expanded to include diving to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans.

Outlook. The sub has not yet passed its pressure tests, so it is unlikely that VO will make its dive attempt until late-2012.


Triton Submarines


Triton is a reknowned builder of submarines specifically tailored for use aboard luxury yachts. The company is fronted by master-marketer Bruce Jones and headed by acclaimed sub expert Patrick Lahey, and together they have delivered six submarines ranging in depth capabilities from 1,000 feet to 3,300 feet and carrying 2-3 passengers in different configurations. They have extended their unique sub designs to include a three-person Full Ocean Depth ("FOD") model 36000/3, which could reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Outlook. Triton is still looking for its first client to pay for the development of the FOD 36000/3.


Deepsearch


The brainchild of famed ocean explorer Sylvia Earle and initially backed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, the Deepsearch project is taking a unique "open source" approach to community-based design and development of a deep-diving submarine. The project is spearheaded by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, an ocean engineering firm headed by Sylvia's daughter, Liz Taylor.

Outlook. This project is still looking for additional financing to move beyond initial design stage.

Deepest-Diving Submarines in the World

When I co-founded OceanGate in 2009, my partner and I wanted to create a business that helped "expand humanity's understanding of the world's oceans" ... by using manned submersibles ("submarines") to support ocean exploration and marine research. One of the most common questions I get is "How deep can submarines go?"

Well, the deepest part of the world's oceans lies approximately 11,000 meters underwater. The Challenger Deep region of the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific is such a deep canyon that you could place Mt. Everest inside and still have 1.5 miles of water above the peak. Only two human beings have ever been to this remote location: Swiss oceanographer and engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh made the descent on January 23, 1960. No one has been back since (although there are currently a few individual efforts underway to do so).

In fact, the deepest diving (non-military) manned submersibles in the world reach just about half that depth (which still gives humans access to roughly 98% of the world's oceans). There are currently only 6 submarines in the world capable of reaching these extreme depths, and they are operated by 5 national governments. Hopefully, this will change in the near future (with OceanGate playing a key role), but until then here is the line-up:

Alvin -- 4,500 meters -- United States

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Nautile -- 6,000 meters -- France

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Mir I & Mir II -- 6,000 meters -- Russia

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Shinkai 6500 -- 6,500 meters -- Japan

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Jiaolong -- 7,000 meters -- China

About Time: Innovating our Calendar System

Every now and then, someone comes up with an innovation that seems like "D'oh! That makes sense!" ... *after* they bring it up. As we celebrate the dawn of the new year, it is only fitting that Steve H. Hanke and Richard Conn Henry have now devised a new twist on our old Gregorian calendar. Their proposed system would ensure consistent days/dates every year, with 30-day months, a 31-day month every third month, and an additional week in December every 5-6 years to replace our quadrennial leap year day. Sounds cool to me ... now, they just need to convince the world to make the switch!