Blake Scholl believes that for founders, passion and drive are more important than knowledge and experience. He argues that what we love is hard to change, but what we know is relatively easy to acquire. Most founders learn 99% of what they need to know after starting their companies.

"The thing I've come to believe is that passion and drive trumps knowledge and experience. It's hard to change what we love, but for founders, it's actually pretty easy to change what we know."

Blake suggests that ambitious founders will always operate at their personal "red line" regardless of the business they're in. The difficulty level is set by the founder, not by the business itself. This creates an opportunity to choose missions that provide psychological leverage by being personally motivating.

"Pick a mission that to us personally is not worth giving up on."

Timestamp: [00:00-03:46]

Aditya observes that the best founders don't let success or failure define how they feel about their mission. This mindset creates a liberating approach to entrepreneurship where the internal emotional dialogue with the mission exists independently of outcomes.

Blake acknowledges his intense fear of failure while sharing a touching story about a conversation with his 10-year-old daughter during one of Boom's low points. He asked her how she would feel if his supersonic jet venture never succeeded.

"She didn't miss a beat. She said 'I'd be proud of you for trying.'"

This pure perspective reinforced Blake's philosophy that founders should choose missions they care about so deeply that they'll "go through any amount of hell" to make them happen. It's not about being okay with failure, but rather selecting a mission worth fighting for regardless of the outcome.

Timestamp: [03:46-05:46]

Jonathan asks Blake about his unique career trajectory, from Amazon to Pelo to founding Kima (a barcode scanning game) to Groupon, and finally to founding Boom Supersonic. Blake explains that his early career at Amazon was exciting and fulfilling, but he "lost his way" when he entered the startup world.

"I thought I should work on what I knew something about, so I was like okay, I know e-commerce from Amazon, I know mobile from Pelo, I should work on mobile e-commerce. Then I wake up one day and I'm building a barcode scanning game for people who shop in stores. I don't play games and I don't shop in stores."

This disconnection from his company's mission led to difficult mornings where he would "be terrified of losing our investors' money" and ultimately wish for an exit. After Groupon acquired his company, he realized he wanted to start something he would "never wish [he] hadn't started."

Blake had loved flight since childhood, but never considered aviation as a career because it didn't seem innovative compared to tech. A visit to see the Concorde at the Seattle Museum of Flight sparked a lifetime goal of flying supersonic, leading him to rank his next venture ideas based on personal happiness rather than qualifications or feasibility.

"I just want to rank my ideas by how happy I would be if it worked and forget everything else - forget do I have the resume for it, forget is it even physically possible, is it a good idea."

Timestamp: [05:46-09:40]

• Passion and drive are more valuable than knowledge and experience for founders
• Choose missions that provide psychological leverage by being personally motivating
• The best founders maintain pride in their mission regardless of success or failure
• Working on something you don't personally care about can lead to founder burnout
• When choosing what to work on next, prioritize personal happiness and fulfillment over conventional qualifications or feasibility
• Finding your true passion may require looking beyond your existing expertise or experience
• A child's perspective ("I'd be proud of you for trying") captures the pure essence of mission-driven entrepreneurship

Timestamp: [00:00-09:40]

Companies:

• Amazon - Where Blake worked early in his career (engineer ~#200)
• Pelo - Mobile app startup where Blake worked before founding his first company
• Kima - Blake's first startup, focused on mobile e-commerce (barcode scanning game)
• Groupon - Acquired Blake's first startup
• Boom Supersonic - Blake's current company developing supersonic aircraft

Aircraft/Aviation:

• Concorde - Supersonic passenger jet that Blake saw in the Seattle Museum of Flight, which inspired his goal of flying supersonic
• Seattle Museum of Flight - Where Blake toured the Concorde and set his lifetime goal

Concepts:

• Moneyball - Referenced by Blake when discussing the "hidden leverage" of choosing personally motivating missions
• Personal Red Line - Blake's term for the maximum effort level that ambitious founders naturally operate at

Timestamp: [00:00-09:40]

When asked if his previous startup experiences were necessary to find his true passion, Blake believes that while it was true for him personally, he wouldn't recommend this path to others. Instead, he encourages founders to pursue their most exciting ideas immediately.

"Go after the most exciting thing I can get my head around. Tech and entrepreneurship generally are just full of success stories of people who did amazingly big things at amazingly young ages."

He reflects that putting exciting ideas on the shelf is not necessary, even though he needed that journey himself. Blake admits that he wouldn't have considered supersonic jets possible right after school, but would have been excited by the idea if someone had convinced him it was achievable.

"Could I have done supersonic jets as my first thing out of school? I don't think I would have considered it within the realm of possibility. But if someone had tapped me on the shoulders and said 'by the way, you could actually do it,' I would have been incredibly excited by the idea."

Timestamp: [09:39-11:02]

When asked how he developed enough comprehension to start Boom despite having no aerospace background, Blake emphasizes the importance of understanding the technical aspects himself rather than outsourcing to a technical co-founder.

"I had very much the premise that I needed to understand all that stuff for myself, and I don't think it would have worked if I hadn't."

Having set aside a year to figure out his next venture gave Blake the freedom to explore blind alleys and learn deeply. He approached the challenge methodically:

1. First, understanding why the Concorde failed (it was too expensive to fly)
2. Creating a three-line spreadsheet that showed even a single-digit improvement in performance versus Concorde could make supersonic travel economically viable
3. Buying university textbooks, relearning calculus on Khan Academy, and reviewing physics fundamentals
4. Building spreadsheet models of both the airplane and the market before approaching industry experts

"I didn't care what other people's conclusions were. I wanted to recreate all my own conclusions from first principles and facts."

Blake's story illustrates how having time to learn and develop intuition through a combination of study and practical work is valuable for founders exploring new domains.

Timestamp: [11:02-14:58]

Aditya raises an interesting point about innovation in software versus hardware, suggesting that software's lower barriers to entry and faster iteration cycles might explain why we see more innovation there. Blake agrees, highlighting two key factors: longer product cycles and longer gratification cycles in hardware.

"One of our big goals at Boom is to shorten the product cycles, because the second-order effects of shorter cycles in hardware are going to be tremendous."

Blake believes founders generally tolerate longer gratification cycles than average, but his team taught him an important lesson about engineering shorter emotional wins within longer projects. He shares a story about how his team experienced burnout after completing a major milestone (rolling out their first test aircraft).

"Burnout is not what everybody thinks it is. Burnout is not 'I've been working too long' or 'I've been working too much.' Burnout is 'the goal is outside of my gratification window.'"

To solve this, Blake's team created "Mission Success Events" - smaller milestones with emotional payoffs scheduled monthly, like "landing gear retracts for the first time" or "pilot's seat is installed." They celebrated these achievements visibly, creating the shorter gratification cycles that software developers naturally experience.

"In some ways this was about how do we go attack a very long cycle goal, but we have to engineer for the team shorter cycle gratification like you can get in the software world."

Timestamp: [14:58-21:14]

Aditya observes that while founders are often described as "risk-loving," this framing doesn't capture the reality of working for years without knowing if a project will succeed. Blake agrees, offering his perspective on how founders view risk differently.

"I think we just see risk differently. To me, the risky thing is spending my life not working on what I love 100%. The really risky thing is I'll wake up 10 years from now and I'll be like, 'Oh, I worked on something that I actually just did not give a shit about.' That feels super risky because time I will not get back."

Blake suggests that founders have an "enlightened view of risk" where the greatest risk isn't failure but wasting time on meaningless work. This reframing helps explain why passionate founders are willing to pursue ambitious, uncertain ventures when the alternative feels more personally costly.

Timestamp: [21:14-23:30]

• Following your passion immediately can be better than "gaining experience" first
• Understanding technical fundamentals personally is crucial, even for non-technical founders
• Allocating sufficient time for exploration and learning helps develop better intuition before committing
• First-principles thinking allows for fresh conclusions rather than relying on conventional wisdom
• Burnout often results when goals fall outside people's "gratification window," not just from working too hard
• Creating and celebrating smaller milestones with emotional payoffs helps teams tackle long-term projects
• The greatest risk for founders isn't failure but spending time on work they don't deeply care about
• Internal communication and celebration of milestones is as important as external messaging
• Software innovation benefits from naturally shorter feedback loops that hardware must deliberately engineer

Timestamp: [09:39-23:30]

Companies/Organizations:

• Boom Supersonic - Blake's company developing supersonic aircraft
• South Park Commons (SPC) - Organization started by Ruchi to provide an environment for learning and exploration
• Facebook - Referenced for Mark Zuckerberg's approach to celebrating milestones

Aircraft/Aviation:

• Concorde - Previous supersonic passenger aircraft that failed due to economic factors
• XB-1 - Boom's first test airplane that recently broke the sound barrier

People:

• Ruchi - Founded South Park Commons with a similar philosophy to Blake's approach to learning
• Mark (Zuckerberg) - Referenced for his approach to internal messaging and milestone celebration at Facebook

Concepts:

• Mission Success Events - Boom's approach to creating monthly milestones with emotional payoffs
• First Principles Thinking - Blake's approach to understanding problems by breaking them down to fundamental truths
• Gratification Window - The timeframe within which people need to see results to stay motivated
• Burnout - Redefined by Blake as having goals outside one's gratification window

Learning Resources:

• Khan Academy - Where Blake relearned calculus to better understand aerospace engineering

Timestamp: [09:39-23:30]

Jonathan raises the critical importance of storytelling for hard tech and deep tech companies, where product cycles are longer and capital requirements higher. These companies need to create a "suspension of disbelief" that's more durable than in industries with shorter iteration cycles.

Blake confirms that storytelling was essential from the beginning. Even before formally establishing the company, he conducted a thought experiment from his basement in California.

"I tried to take myself out of the story and I said look, imagine it's the year 2050 and I'm sitting on the beach sipping mai tais and I'm reading the aviation history books. How do I think they go?"

He worked backward from this future scenario to identify what would be required for supersonic flight to succeed. Blake reasoned that Boeing wouldn't suddenly innovate after 50 years of not pursuing supersonic travel, so it would have to be an industry outsider.

"It's going to have to be somebody from outside the industry. What would that effort look like? What would be the attributes of the successful team?"

His analysis identified key success factors: an exceptional team (requiring strong recruiting skills), persuasive abilities to bring along airlines and suppliers with decades-long histories, and investors willing to commit to a long journey with uncertainty.

"Persuasion is going to matter, and getting good at painting a story of the future that people can understand and buy into was going to be really important."

Blake admits that on "Day Zero," he possessed none of these storytelling skills, describing himself as "horrible at any form of communication or public speaking" at that time.

Timestamp: [23:35-26:10]

Aditya takes a moment to acknowledge Steven Rudich, their professor for "Ideas in Mathematics" at Carnegie Mellon, describing him as a "masterful storyteller" whose lectures still resonate years later.

"I cannot explain to you how good he was. I still think about some of his lectures and the way he delivered them. You talk about storytelling, learning from the master."

Blake agrees about Rudich's life-changing impact, mentioning his recent passing. He shares a story about Rudich's teaching technique that demonstrates effective storytelling.

"He had the great insight to open every lecture with a magic trick. He was an incredible magician with amazing sleight of hand, but the best sleight of hand was this made all the students show up on time magically, because nobody ever wanted to miss the magic trick."

This anecdote illustrates how storytelling and presentation techniques can drive engagement and behavior change, a principle Blake would later apply at Boom.

Timestamp: [26:10-27:17]

Jonathan asks if Blake's approach to storytelling has evolved during his decade building Boom, especially since achieving the milestone of getting a plane off the ground. Blake shares two key lessons he's learned.

The first lesson, which he discovered early: "Figure out how to make real progress that also looks like progress."

He illustrates this with an example from Boom's time in Y Combinator. While they were improving their airplane design through simulation to achieve a specific lift-to-drag ratio (aerodynamic efficiency), Blake realized that talking about simulation results wasn't compelling, even if the numbers were impressive.

"That's not inspiring, it's not convincing. People won't necessarily believe the simulation."

Instead, they built a physical model of the airplane that reflected their design, something tangible they could point to and use to explain why their approach worked. Making progress visible and concrete became a foundational principle.

"Making things tangible was a big deal."

Timestamp: [27:17-29:05]

Blake's second, more recent lesson relates to prioritizing work. He shares a powerful mantra: "Don't build the demo, demo the build."

This phrase (credited to board member and mentor Jeff Holden) refines the concept of making progress tangible by focusing on demonstrating actual product development rather than creating separate demo projects that don't advance the core product.

"One sort of mistaken way you can make things tangible is to build a lot of demos."

Aditya immediately recognizes the value of this principle, saying, "I might steal that, Blake. That's a good one."

This approach ensures that demonstration efforts contribute directly to building the actual product, rather than diverting resources to create impressive but ultimately disposable demonstrations that don't move the company toward its goals.

Timestamp: [29:05-29:50]

• Hard tech companies need more durable storytelling due to longer product cycles and higher capital requirements
• Visualizing the future and working backward helps identify the necessary attributes for success
• Effective storytelling requires painting a compelling vision that diverse stakeholders can understand and support
• Making technical progress visible and tangible is crucial for building credibility and momentum
• "Don't build the demo, demo the build" - focus on advancing the actual product rather than creating separate demonstrations
• Learning from master communicators (like Professor Rudich) can provide valuable techniques for engagement
• Starting with thought experiments about how history will view your industry can provide strategic clarity
• Persuasion skills are essential when working with established industry players and long-term investors
• Physical models and tangible artifacts can communicate complex technical achievements more effectively than data alone

Timestamp: [23:35-29:50]

Companies/Organizations:

• Boom Supersonic - Blake's company developing supersonic aircraft
• Boeing - Referenced as an example of an incumbent that hadn't pursued supersonic travel for 50 years
• Y Combinator (YC) - Startup accelerator where Boom refined their approach to demonstrating progress

People:

• Steven Rudich - Professor for "Ideas in Mathematics" at Carnegie Mellon who influenced Blake's storytelling approach
• Jeff Holden - Blake's board member and mentor who coined the phrase "Don't build the demo, demo the build"

Concepts:

• Lift-to-drag ratio - Aerodynamic efficiency metric Boom was optimizing in their airplane design
• "Don't build the demo, demo the build" - Principle of focusing on demonstrating progress on the actual product
• Suspension of disbelief - What hard tech companies must create and maintain over longer development cycles

Educational Institutions:

• Carnegie Mellon - University where Blake was Aditya's teaching assistant and where they both studied under Professor Rudich

Timestamp: [23:35-29:50]

Blake reveals that Boom is building their own jet engines, a decision many called crazy. But he's come to believe the opposite is true.

"People called us crazy to do that. I've come to believe it'd be crazy to do it any other way, you know, just the same way SpaceX builds their own engines or Apple now builds their own chips."

Initially, Boom approached engine development like traditional manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce—with lengthy engineering processes and extensive validation before building hardware. The theoretical advantage was efficiency, as hardware is expensive and avoiding wasted prototypes saves money.

However, Blake realized this approach had a critical flaw: it was difficult to inspect progress from the outside. This lack of visibility almost led them to build demonstration models rather than actual progress on their final product.

"We almost slipped into like building a demo mode, like we thought about 'Oh, should we build like a smaller engine to prove that we can make an engine?'"

This realization triggered a complete rethinking of their development approach. They abandoned the traditional roadmap in favor of iteration, focusing on building a working engine as quickly as possible—not a final engine, but one that would help them discover what they didn't know.

"We're going to focus much more on iteration and we're going to get to a whole engine that works as quickly as we can. What doesn't matter is that it's a final engine, it just matters it's an engine we can find out what we don't know and then iterate."

This approach made progress visible both inside and outside the company, creating better alignment with their goals.

Timestamp: [29:56-31:53]

Blake shares lessons from the XB-1 test airplane that illustrate how to bring hardware development closer to software's rapid iteration cycles. Two main factors that slowed them down were:

1. Safety concerns (understandable with a human-piloted aircraft where "failure is not an option")
2. Fear of breaking expensive or time-consuming components to replace

He shares an example of custom flight control actuators that cost $60,000 each. The real problem wasn't the money, but the year-long replacement timeline—which could cost the company $155 million in burn rate and potentially threaten its survival.

"We got down to the point where we only had one spare... and we're like babying the actuator because we don't ever want to break it because we'd be stuck for a year, and the company might not survive that."

The solution: "Don't tolerate things that are expensive in time or money to replace." For Boom's engine development, this meant bringing more manufacturing in-house so they could replace broken parts quickly rather than waiting on external suppliers.

Timestamp: [31:53-33:42]

Blake introduces two metrics for evaluating supply chain efficiency:

1. The Idiot Index (coined by Elon Musk): The final cost of a part divided by its raw materials cost.

"This aluminum manifold costs $1,000 for the end product, but it's made out of a dollar of aluminum, so your idiot index is a thousand."

2. The Slacker Index (Boom's creation): The lead time on a part divided by how long it actually takes to make it.

Blake illustrates the slacker index with their experience with 3D-printed turbine blades that had a six-month lead time, but only took a couple of days to actually produce. The remaining time was spent waiting for machine availability, processing parts one at a time instead of in batches, and sending them to various outside facilities for additional processing.

"It actually only takes a couple days to make one, but it was taking six months to get one. So the slacker index was horrible."

Aditya draws a parallel to Jeff Bezos's famous quote: "Your margin is my opportunity," suggesting that "your supply chain shenanigans are my opportunity"—inefficiencies in traditional supply chains create openings for innovation.

Timestamp: [33:42-35:32]

Blake shares another story to encourage more people to enter hardware, as "the alleged difficulties are just not real." He recounts Boom's experience with a materials partnership for their engine design.

Initially, they designed around a material called René 88, an advanced powder metal alloy for high-temperature engine components. Later analysis showed they needed a better version called René 104. When they asked their partner for this material, they were denied access because it supposedly contained "trade secrets."

"We called up the partner and said 'Hey, small change of plans, we need René 104 not René 88.' And they said, 'Well, you can't have it.' 'What do you mean why can't I have it?' 'Well, there's a trade secret.'"

Even when Blake offered to have the partner manufacture the part without revealing any secrets, they refused, claiming Boom would discover the trade secret. Panicked about building an engine without this crucial material, Boom's team researched the supply chain for powder metal alloys.

What they discovered was shocking: the "trade secret" material was actually ME3, a public, open-source material created by NASA.

"The trade secret is there is no trade secret. It's an open-source material."

Timestamp: [35:32-37:30]

Blake explains that their discovery about the "fake proprietary" materials revealed a fundamental flaw in the jet engine industry's business model: engines are essentially given away, with all profit coming from maintenance and spare parts.

"The engine business has this like colossally stupid business model where basically engines are given away and all the margin is in the spare parts. It's all in maintenance."

This model creates two major problems:

1. It incentivizes manufacturers to make all parts proprietary to prevent third parties from capturing maintenance revenue
2. It discourages innovation because new products cut off maintenance revenue from existing products

"If you don't make money selling a product and you only make money maintaining it, the last thing you ever want to do is ship anything new, because you cut off the maintenance revenue on the last thing in order to sell something you don't make any money on."

Recognizing these perverse incentives, Boom decided to "blow up the business model" by pledging to customers that they would make money selling products, not from maintenance:

"We don't make money when our stuff breaks. We make money when we create something they want to buy."

The segment ends with the host noting that Blake has achieved a significant milestone: "You started a company a decade ago to make supersonic aircraft. You now have a plane that's broken the sound barrier."

Timestamp: [37:30-38:52]

• Building critical components in-house (like engines) provides greater control and accelerates development
• Traditional development approaches that lack visible progress indicators may be fundamentally flawed
• Iteration and learning should take precedence over trying to build perfect products on the first attempt
• Hardware development slows down when teams fear breaking expensive or time-consuming components
• The "Slacker Index" (lead time divided by actual production time) reveals supply chain inefficiencies
• Many "proprietary" technologies in established industries may actually be based on public knowledge
• Traditional business models in aerospace (giving away engines, profiting on maintenance) discourage innovation
• Bringing manufacturing in-house allows for faster iteration and less dependence on inefficient suppliers
• Making hardware development more like software requires rethinking both technical and business approaches
• Visible progress creates better alignment both inside and outside the company

Timestamp: [29:56-38:52]

Companies/Organizations:

• Boom Supersonic - Blake's company developing supersonic aircraft
• SpaceX - Referenced as another company that builds its own engines
• Apple - Referenced for their decision to build their own chips
• Rolls-Royce - Traditional engine manufacturer used as an example of lengthy development cycles
• NASA - Created the open-source ME3 material that was falsely claimed as proprietary

Aircraft/Aviation:

• XB-1 - Boom's test airplane that recently broke the sound barrier

People:

• Elon Musk - Credited with coining the term "Idiot Index"
• Jeff Bezos - Indirectly referenced through his famous quote "Your margin is my opportunity"

Materials/Components:

• René 88 - Advanced powder metal alloy initially planned for Boom's engine
• René 104 - Superior version of the alloy that Boom later needed
• ME3 - NASA's open-source material that was presented as a proprietary "trade secret"
• Flight control actuators - Example of components with long lead times that slowed development

Concepts:

• Idiot Index - Final cost of a part divided by its raw materials cost
• Slacker Index - Lead time on a part divided by how long it actually takes to make it
• "Your margin is my opportunity" - Jeff Bezos quote paralleled by Blake's approach to supply chain inefficiencies

Timestamp: [29:56-38:52]

When asked if his beliefs have changed significantly since starting Boom, Blake notes that while there are "a thousand things," what's remarkable is how little has changed in the fundamental business model.

"Our basic idea in that three-line spreadsheet—an all-business class supersonic jet where you trade beds for seats and the economics would thereby compete with subsonic business class—that started off as a three-line spreadsheet. And now there's an enormously sophisticated technical model of the airplane, an enormously sophisticated market model, and they all give basically exactly the same result."

Blake admits that he initially doubted his own discovery: "The first 18 months on this, I thought like there's no way that I stumbled across the unlock for supersonic passenger flight. Like it's just not believable. And every day I think, 'Today is going to be the day that somebody finds the bug in the spreadsheet.'"

Aditya suggests there's a lesson here: "Go look for the thing that everyone's like 'there's no way'... and then just go do it." Blake attributes this phenomenon to the bystander effect—when something obviously beneficial isn't being done, people assume there must be good reasons why it's a bad idea.

"The internet is always full of plausible reasons that things are bad ideas. And the typical form is a qualitative claim on a quantitative question: 'People won't pay more for speed.' 'The market's not big enough unless you solve sonic boom.'"

Blake argues that by refusing to accept qualitative claims on quantitative issues and actually measuring things, "an enormous amount of conventional wisdom can be blown up." He maintains a list of other seemingly unsolvable problems that small teams could tackle, including traffic, which he believes is "completely solvable" and "way easier than supersonic jets."

Timestamp: [38:58-41:57]

Blake discusses the test pilots and flight program for XB-1, Boom's supersonic demonstrator aircraft. He mentions that Doc piloted the first flight before being "called back to the Naval Test Pilot School" to teach the next generation, while Jepetto completed flights two through thirteen.

The thirteenth flight was the final one for XB-1, marking the completion of its mission. Blake shares the emotional impact of this milestone:

"I almost teared up on the live stream of that last flight, which I got to play sportscaster doing... I sort of shared that 'Yeah, that's the last time that airplane's ever gonna fly.' And on one hand I'm proud, on the other hand I'm really really gonna miss the thrill of that. On the other hand, it makes me all that much more determined—I want to do that again. We got to get Overture done."

When Aditya asks if Blake gets to keep the old plane in his garage, Blake jokes that it wouldn't fit but reveals their plans for the aircraft as they move the company to a new building with mixed manufacturing and office space.

"We're going to put the airplane in the lobby."

Timestamp: [41:57-44:05]

Blake emphasizes the importance of inspiration in Boom's culture and physical environment. He explains the "rule" for their lobby display:

"The most badass thing that we have ever built will live in our lobby. Right now XB-1 is the most badass thing we've ever built, and when we have a new thing that's more badass, then we'll put XB-1 in a museum and the new thing will be in our lobby."

The purpose of this showcase is to inspire the team facing difficult problems every day:

"I want them to go look at what a team can do that doesn't give up. And XB-1 took a whole lot of not giving up."

When Jonathan jokes that they'll need a big lobby for the airliner, Blake acknowledges it would be "tricky" to fit Overture in the lobby.

Aditya observes an interesting contrast between software and hardware projects: while software offers quicker gratification, hardware provides more visceral storytelling and lasting connection. He notes, "Software is almost so dynamic... I have zero connection to the code that I wrote 15 years ago, but if I worked on XB-1, I can point to that thing and be like 'I worked on it.'" This tangibility represents a real advantage of working in the physical world.

Timestamp: [44:05-45:55]

As the conversation concludes, Blake pays tribute to the test pilots who flew XB-1:

"A lot of people are invested in what we're doing—obviously our investors are invested, the team is invested, I'm invested—but nobody's invested the way a test pilot is."

He reflects on how history remembers aviation milestones, noting that while Chuck Yeager is widely known for breaking the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, few remember who built that aircraft. This initially bothered him until he realized it was appropriate:

"Doc and Jepetto, those guys had the courage to go get in an airplane in the sky and do with it something it had never done before. And mind you, this is not just like a very complex brand new supersonic jet—this is a brand new, very complex supersonic jet built by a company that had never built anything before."

Blake expresses profound gratitude to the pilots who "literally put their lives on the line in service of the future of flight" and hopes they'll be remembered as they deserve to be.

The hosts thank Blake for sharing his journey and thoughts on accelerating progress in the real world, extending an open invitation for him to return to the podcast in the future.

Timestamp: [45:55-48:32]

• The fundamental business case for supersonic travel has remained remarkably consistent from initial spreadsheet to sophisticated models
• Many seemingly unsolvable problems persist because of the "bystander effect" and unchallenged conventional wisdom
• Quantitative analysis often disproves qualitative claims about why certain innovations "can't work"
• Physical artifacts like the XB-1 serve as powerful symbols of achievement and sources of inspiration
• Hardware projects offer tangible, lasting connections that software often lacks
• Test pilots make unique sacrifices by literally putting their lives on the line for innovation
• The completion of the XB-1 test flight program marks a significant milestone and transition to the Overture airliner
• Creating an inspiring work environment that showcases achievements helps teams tackle seemingly impossible challenges
• History tends to remember the individuals who take personal risks in pursuit of breakthroughs
• Challenging assumptions and measuring what others dismiss can reveal enormous opportunities

Timestamp: [38:58-48:32]

Companies/Organizations:

• Boom Supersonic - Blake's company developing supersonic aircraft
• South Park Commons (SPC) - Organization mentioned in relation to exploring traffic solutions
• Naval Test Pilot School - Where Doc returned to teach after piloting XB-1's first flight
• Atomic Growth - Thanked for supporting the podcast

Aircraft/Aviation:

• XB-1 - Boom's supersonic demonstrator that completed its 13-flight test program
• Overture - Boom's next aircraft, the commercial supersonic airliner in development
• Bell X-1 - The aircraft Chuck Yeager piloted to break the sound barrier

People:

• Doc - Test pilot who flew XB-1's first flight before returning to teach at Naval Test Pilot School
• Jepetto - Test pilot who flew XB-1's flights 2-13
• Chuck Yeager - Famous test pilot mentioned for breaking the sound barrier in the Bell X-1

Concepts:

• Bystander Effect - When people assume there's a good reason why obvious improvements aren't being implemented
• Three-line spreadsheet - Blake's original business case for supersonic travel that has withstood sophisticated analysis
• "The most badass thing we've ever built" - Boom's philosophy for what belongs in their lobby

Problems Worth Solving:

• Traffic - Identified by Blake as "100% solvable" and "way easier than supersonic jets"

Timestamp: [38:58-48:32]

Podcast Information:

• This episode is part of the "Minus One" podcast from South Park Commons
• Listeners can subscribe wherever they listen to podcasts
• Find the podcast on social media at South Park Commons

Sponsorship:

• The episode was brought to life with support from Atomic Growth

Timestamp: [48:20-48:32]