Ad Astra - To the Stars with Ozan Varol

E114: Dateline London. Think Big and Be Audacious

Dateline: London

“Is there one online writer that you would like to bring to our attention?”

Ozan Varol first landed on my doorstep during Covid, between the hard covers of a book intriguingly titled “Think Like a Rocket Scientist". I am Generation “First Man on the Moon”, so you can imagine how that title drew me into its orbit.

To find an innovative productivity guru is one thing. But to discover a hilarious and imaginative critical thinker in the most beautiful of minds is something entirely apart. 

Here is someone who talks about moonshots, and perspective and embracing big challenges. He does it with charm. His writing is light and accessible. He writes for GenZ - an audience I wish to inspire. He writes about soaring above the problem and searching for a different solution. He writes about the value of rest. He writes for our time. He’s had many appearances in this newsletter, most recently E110: Listening for Different Ideas.

I wish to write as he writes: Dense topics, served with a light side of hope and possibility.

To break the monotony of Covid, I would take long walks or drives, and listen to his audio book. I remember the curve of the pavement, the grey-blue colour of the April sky and the baby limegreen leaves pushing on the shrubs as I walked the stretch of lake while listening to him describe the scientists stumbling around in the dark searching for the light switch in a dark room (The Great Unknown). In the middle of the Covid crisis it was an apt description of our search for vaccines and normalcy at that moment. The book itself went on to challenge us to stretch the edges of the boxes we place ourselves in, and to lean our ladders of learning against different walls so we can scale the fences around us. It was what I needed.

“Think Like a Rocket Scientist” sang to me. It remains a book I strongly recommend.

But it also left me wanting to discover more.

More About Ozan

Ozan Varol’s bio appeals to me because he is just so zany. He is funny, irreverent, relevant and inspiring. Not words you normally place alongside a person who helped land the Rovers on planet Mars.

He grew up herding goats for his grandfather on the Turkish hillside, not speaking a word of English. And yet, he came to study Planetary Sciences at Cornell as an undergrad aged 17. 

His life story is a sequence of reaching for the stars, for the things that people say are out of reach. I am sure he also hits imposter syndrome, but his life journey shows me where he places that in perspective to his natural curiosity.

It’s not often you come across a “rocket scientist”. Less often one who gives that up to become a lawyer as he describes it “studying the physics of society”. After becoming a tenured Law professor, he moved on to writing books and offering keynote speeches on innovation, critical thinking and creativity.

I find his writing - and him - inspiring.

Ad Astra

Ozan signs off his newsletter with Ad Astra (to the stars). I thought I would pick my favourite of Ozan Varol’s posts. For those in Tribe Tilt you will recognize the strong correlation with what I call 21st-century or heirloom skills. As you explore his work, you will see why I have come to admire someone who is unafraid to lean into the topics that others hold at arm's-length:

FAILURE: “Stop fishing for support. Start farming for dissent.” In this post titled “What you can learn from Netflix’s biggest mistake”, Ozan calls for what I term ‘respectful debate’. Our arguments grow stronger when we embrace the viewpoints of others. We are able to build a more robust tool or product when we listen. It is an argument you may recognize in some of my posts.

Dredge his entire category of failure related essays. And you will now lean into iteration (the cycle of trying, testing, failing forward) with a thirst, excitement and joy.

DECISION-MAKING: Decision-making is a topic close to my heart. (I even wrote a book about it!) Not surprisingly, Ozan approaches the topic of decision-making with a different vantage point. He addresses the role of uncertainty, and taking unconventional paths.

However, I picked an odd selection from this category - his recent post titled “When Intuition Outsmarts Logic.” It is unusual, because though he is a scientist, he describes when he “listened to his gut”.

His post follows the early exit of the Varol couple from their first Burning Man experience. Burning Man is a huge cultural festival held in the Nevada deserts. This year’s event was affected by sudden unusually heavy rain and a flash flood from Hurricane Hilary which turned the area into a giant mud pit leaving many stranded without food, sanitation and shelter for many days. Just before the storm hit, however, Ozan Varol woke with an odd feeling. This rocket scientist decided to lean into his intuition and left the event early, barely escaping the knee-deep mud troughs and discomfort that tens of thousands others ended up enduring.

“Our instincts can capture nuances that our conscious minds might overlook. Listening to those instincts doesn’t mean neglecting your mind. Instead, it’s about harmonizing the two, recognizing that sometimes the body knows what the mind can’t explain.”

We so often focus on the logic involved in decision-making, that we sometimes ignore our body’s natural tilt towards the path that is right for us. This was a timely reminder for me.

CREATIVITY: Tribe Tilt readers know that I place emphasis on mental white space. Ozan considers it crucial in “this world bombarded with information”. In this essay “The Art of Selective Ignorance” he rationally lays out a game plan for creating “room for imagination.”

He normalizes rest, and he achieved his “Latest moonshot”” of quiet space for the summer months in a year when he published “Awaken Your Genius”. “Sometimes, the bravest mission is a holding pattern, giving space for your trajectory to reveal itself.”

Do you want to learn more?

I hope this brief intro has intrigued you sufficiently to explore the fuller offering of his blog and books for yourself. Sign up. https://ozanvarol.com/newsletter/

And let's share notes on his next interesting take on life on Earth. 

Till then, Ad Astra.
Reach for your stars. You have permission. 

Thank you to

Tommy Dixon

and Mohammad Khan

Mohammad’s Newsletter

who helped me by providing valuable feedback.

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My Mother Says Thanks and Sends Her Best

“Talking to your mother has the same effect as a hug and can help reduce stress levels. The sound of her voice releases oxytocin and is a great stress relief.” Instagram post

An in-person hug, however, is particularly satisfying. If you are fortunate enough to be able to call or hug your mother, may you be blessed with this tremendous gift.

First stop, London.

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Join me in welcoming so many new members from across the globe to Tribe Tilt! Our first from the Philippines (

Better Meant

’s Linart Seprioto), Australia (

Anna Mack's Stack

Anna Mackenzie), New Zealand (

Beyond Butter Chicken

‘s Perzen Patel) , India (

Arunava Ghosh

), the USA

Avalanche of Enthusiasm

CJWerner, and Canada (

Torin Regier

).

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See you next week from India. Stay healthy. From there all else becomes possible.
Karena