Inside the Skunk Works, we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers. Our forte was building a small number of very technologically advanced airplanes for highly secret missions.
Trust Networks
Large coordination emerges from small-scale trust.
Unreliable Parts
Mega-projects orchestrate unreliable elements into coherent wholes.
Tinkering Sanctuary
Protected spaces insulated from interference enable breakthroughs.