David Senra

Simulations showed fixed fins were acceptable, so they deleted the mechanism entirely.

This is what Elon said.

The best part is no part.

The best process is no process.

Engineers are explicitly told that requirements from quote unquote smart people are the most dangerous because nobody thinks to question them.

Every requirement must have an owner, a specific person who can defend why it exists.

If the owner can't explain it or the original reason no longer applies, that requirement gets deleted.

This turns into Elon's now well-known rule.

If you are not adding back at least 10% of the requirements you deleted, you aren't deleting enough.

And meme number five, treat everything as learning.

Failures and explosions are data for the next iteration, not disasters to be concealed.

SpaceX published compilation videos titled, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket.

Spectacular drone ship crashes set to music.

This isn't just PR, it's a genuine signal that visible failure is acceptable if you extract the lesson.

Many would see the early Falcon 9 booster landings as spectacular failures.

Rockets exploding on drone ships, tipping over, crashing into the ocean.

But over time, those iterations produced a landing success rate high enough to support reusing boosters dozens of times.

That reusability is what makes Falcon 9 economically dominant.

You don't get there without the explosions first.

The cultural frame matters.