Book: Project Hail Mary

Author

Andy Weir

Summary

The story of a high school teacher and former molecular biologist sent on a space mission to save humanity from becoming extinct.

Takeaways

Breakthroughs can be made quickly when the scientific community works together towards a common goal and is unobstructed from political interference and misaligned incentives. Faced with an extential threat, the human habitants of earth combine resources and consolidate power to streamline the successful execution of project Hail Mary.

The protagonist is successful because he skillfully applies the scientific method and educated first principle thinking to a variety of problems that arise during the mission. By formulating hypotheses and validating or rejecting them with well thought out experiments he is systematically gaining critical information and draws the right conclusions.