Blake Scholl in conversation with Tyler Cowen

Episode Overview

• Blake Scholl argues that celebrated "moonshot" projects like Concorde and Apollo were economic failures that created unsustainable, cost-insensitive bureaucracies rather than paving the way for market-driven progress.
• The conversation contrasts the long-term, customer-centric business strategy of Amazon with the short-term, quarter-driven pressures experienced at companies like Groupon, highlighting the importance of long-view thinking.
• Scholl identifies major inefficiencies in modern aviation, from "security theater" and suboptimal airport design to a politically-optimized aerospace supply chain that stifles innovation.
• The discussion explores strategies for accelerating progress, including vertical integration to reduce the "cost of change," a focus on commercially viable products over "tech demos," and a personal learning method rooted in first principles.

Key Concepts

• Critique of "Government-Specced Innovation": Scholl posits that projects like the Concorde and the Apollo program, while inspiring, were ultimately unsustainable "tech demos" rather than viable products. This government-led approach created cost-insensitive, politically-optimized supply chains that hindered commercial progress for decades.
• Long-Term vs. Short-Term Business Strategy: The stark contrast between Amazon's willingness to sacrifice quarterly results for long-term cash flow and Groupon's focus on short-term targets illustrates how a company's time horizon fundamentally shapes its strategy and sustainability.
• Modern Aviation Inefficiencies: The conversation highlights systemic flaws in air travel, including ineffective "security theater" at airports, proposals for radical airport redesign (e.g., underground terminals), and a fragmented aerospace supply chain where components spend more time in transit than in manufacturing.
• The "Cost of Change" as an Innovation Barrier: A key obstacle to progress in industries like aerospace is the high cost and long lead time required to make any changes. Boom's strategy of vertical integration is a direct attempt to lower this cost and enable faster iteration.
• First-Principles Learning: Scholl shares his personal methodology for mastering new topics, which involves maintaining a "confusion list" to systematically identify and resolve knowledge gaps by working up from fundamental principles.

Quotes

• At 0:07 - "I think Concorde never should have been done and Apollo never should have been done." - Blake Scholl opens with his controversial thesis that these celebrated technological achievements were ultimately unsustainable and did not pave the way for future progress.
• At 1:39 - "Let's convert some jet fuel into human progress." - Scholl offers a concise and optimistic summary of his core mission with Boom Supersonic, framing faster travel as a key driver of human advancement.
• At 18:02 - "I was like, 'Dude, that's why this quarter is soft, because we did that last quarter.' And he's like, 'I don't care, send the email. Like, fix it next quarter.'" - Recounting a conversation with the Groupon CEO that illustrates the cycle of sacrificing long-term customer relationships for short-term financial results.
• At 18:55 - "Customer centricity was so much in the culture that like any debate about any decision was kind of resolved through like, 'Okay, what's actually best for customers?'" - Highlighting the core principle that guided Amazon's successful long-term decision-making, which he saw as a key differentiator.
• At 23:25 - "What we did is we built really impressive tech demos, not products. And that's what happens when you have government-specced innovation." - Critiquing the Apollo and Concorde programs for being driven by national prestige rather than commercial viability, which he believes hindered long-term progress.
• At 33:53 - "The part spends more time on a truck than on a machine." - Describing the profound inefficiency of the aerospace supply chain, where manufacturing is fragmented across different states to secure political support.
• At 35:05 - "When something seems stupid, ask yourself, what would have to be the case for this actually to be smart?" - Scholl shares a key mental model for understanding complex systems by assuming there is a rational, albeit perhaps non-obvious, reason for their current state.

Takeaways

• Prioritize long-term, customer-centric value over short-term quarterly targets to build a more resilient and sustainable business.
• Focus innovation on creating commercially viable products that can scale, rather than just impressive but unsustainable technology demonstrations.
• To accelerate progress in established industries, attack the "cost of change" by rethinking fundamental processes like supply chains and manufacturing.
• Adopt a first-principles approach to learning by actively identifying your points of confusion and working systematically to resolve them.