After procrastinating for nearly a week, you finally get around to actually putting the clothes in the washing machine. You are pressed for time, but you’re finally out of clean underwear. You grab the bottle of detergent, turn it upside down, and...nothing. After 15 seconds completely inverted, a small drop peeks out from the bottle and lands in the machine. Frustration mounts as you realize that you’ll need to make a special trip to the store for more detergent, or, well, you’re out of other options.
This frustration is the exact thing the folks at Amazon are on the lookout for.
What began as an online bookstore has expanded into the 9th most valuable company in the world, valued at over $340 billion, with 230,000 team members intently focused on discovering what’s next, rather than just executing what already is. Jeff Bezos, now the 8 th wealthiest American, views the company as a living organism whose purpose is to constantly evolve and adapt to changing circumstances. Right from the start, he worked to build a company that was fluid in its offerings and approach. The only immovable principles: an obsession with serving customers better and a commitment to ongoing innovation.
So how does this help with you standing in front of your washer without detergent or clean underwear? Instead of whipping the empty jug across the room in defeat, you press the small button affixed to the front of your washing machine. The button connects to your home Wi-Fi network, logs into your Amazon account, looks up your last order of detergent to ensure you get your favorite brand, and immediately ships you a fresh bottle overnight, billing the purchase to your credit card. All with the single touch of a button, the Amazon Dash button.
This little invention is one of hundreds that keeps Amazon on the forefront of change and progress. As you may expect, you can get a Dash Button for just about anything. A Glad button placed inside a kitchen drawer can be pressed to re-order plastic sandwich bags. Low on shaving cream? Press the Gillette button you placed in your bathroom to have it rushed your way. Paper towel, bug killer, dish soap, and even condoms are available with the touch of a button. Amazon is making it dead simple to do business with them.
Fueling Amazon’s incredible success is the fundamental hacker mindset that Nothing Is Static. Transforming from an online bookstore, to a full-scale online department store, to offering technology and web hosting services to other firms, and recently even venturing into space travel, the company is in a state of constant motion. Bezos reinforced this philosophy by saying, “A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.” What dazzles a customer today will be soon be commonplace, so he pushes his team to reinvent early and often.
HACKING LANDMINES
There are over 110 million landmines planted beneath the earth’s surface, killing 60,000 people per year and injuring many times more. This worldwide issue is a terrifying daily threat to people in the desert region around Kabul, Afghanistan.
Growing up just outside Kabul, Massoud Hassani witnessed some terrible tragedies as a result of these killing machines. As a young man, Massoud decided to make it his life’s work to put at least a small dent in this giant problem. He had no money, specialized training, or fancy credentials. So he had to hack the problem.
First, he was convinced that Every Barrier Can Be Penetrated. He knew there had to be a better way, and refused to accept the notion that fatalities were just to be expected. Next, he entertained a deep sense of curiosity and exploration, a willingness to choose Compasses Over Maps. He asked countless questions about conventional mine-clearing methods, challenged prevailing wisdom, and pursued the problem over a given solution.
As Massoud immersed himself in the world of landmine safety, he was struck by how little progress had been made. The traditional approach – more or less the same since the 1960s – is expensive, dangerous, and not all that effective. Yet major defense contractors, nation-states, and academic researchers remained entrenched in the old, static approach.
Hassani’s breakthrough innovation came from borrowing, a hacking tactic we’ll cover later in the book. As a young boy, he would frequently look into the distance and watch tumbleweed blowing gently across the desert sand. This inspiration led him to create the Mine Kafon, “mine exploder” in his native language of Dari. The Kafon looks like a giant ripened dandelion waiting to blow into the wind from its stem. The device is approximately six feet in diameter and contains a central core, approximately 50 bamboo rods emanating from the center, and clay disks affixed to the end of each rod. The invention is light enough to be wind-propelled, like the tumbleweeds Hassani watched blowing across the desert in his youth. But the Kafon is also heavy enough to detonate the land mines planted beneath the earth’s surface. Boom.
The UN estimates that for every 5,000 mines cleared, one clearing specialist is killed and two others are seriously injured. In contrast to these traditional approaches, the Mine Kafon is unmanned. This human toll is now eliminated. Further, the cost-per-landmine-cleared has been dramatically reduced. The Kafon is over 120 times less expensive than classic methods. The Mine Kafon is the most important advancement in mine-clearing technology in the last four decades, saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars. The design was so profound that it is now on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Having written about the Mine Kafon in my previous book, The Road to Reinvention, I’ve since had the privilege of getting to know Massoud Hassani. In preparation for a call in late 2015, I was expecting him to be basking in his glory. Here’s a kid from rural Afghanistan, with no resources or help, who has gone on to make a massive impact on the world. Additionally, he started a company and is now building a terrific business providing Mine Kafons throughout the world. But instead of ruminating in a celebratory glow, Massoud was fully immersed in the next challenge.
“Detonation is an important problem,” he told me. “But detection is an even bigger issue. There are often miles of open space with only one landmine lurking to cause harm. After the success of the Mine Kafon in detonation, I’ve shifted my efforts to find a more comprehensive solution. I’ve reinvented.”
Today, Massoud is using low-flying drones and is able to cover large swaths of land very quickly. He attaches a robotic arm with a high-powered magnet, flying over open areas to search for mines. In real time, he’s beaming back a video feed along with GPS coordinates, so that newly-detected land mines can be quickly located and conquered.
Massoud Hassani, a hacker of the highest order, achieved unparalleled success with his Mine Kafon. Understanding mindset #3, Nothing Is Static, he quickly used his initial success to tackle the next challenge. Essentially, he disrupted himself. He made the most important change in land mine clearing in over 40 years, and one year later he did it again. I expect that he will have done it again when I speak to him next. Rather than becoming complacent, Massoud continues to challenge himself to learn more, do more, hack more. Massoud Hassani continues to push the boundaries and will use each success as a stepping stone for the next.
LOW RIDER
A man from a tiny rural town in Germany identified his target: an opportunity to abscond with millions in profit. He carefully crafted his hack, a new technology that was sure to infiltrate his mark and best all previous attempts. Through rapid experimentation and unorthodox approaches, this hacker was poised to profit greatly, and send shockwaves throughout the world.
Who was this mysterious misfit? While the description could represent a modern day cybercriminal, our protagonist is none other than Ignaz Schwinn, the grandfather of leisure bicycles, as he founded
