Keynote: Leagues of Sea and Sky

by Jeff Norris

In his keynote speech titled "Leagues of Sea and Sky" at RubyConf 2015, Jeff Norris discusses the importance of partnerships in the context of historical innovations in exploration. He shares three pivotal stories that illustrate how collaboration has shaped the field of nautical and aeronautical exploration.

First Story: Maritime Exploration and the Longitude Problem
- In the early 1700s, maritime navigation faced a significant problem with determining longitude. The Longitude Prize was established to incentivize solutions.
- Two key figures were introduced: Nevil Maskelyne, who championed the lunar distance method, and John Harrison, a self-taught carpenter who developed a series of sea clocks.
- Despite his genius, Harrison struggled due to lack of collaboration and ultimately faced significant challenges due to Maskelyne's exploitation of political connections.
- The story illustrates the disastrous consequences of failed partnerships and shows what might have been achieved had they collaborated.
Second Story: Aviation and the Orteig Prize
- Fast forward to the 1920s, the Orteig Prize encouraged aviation innovation to achieve a transatlantic flight. Charles Lindbergh and engineer Donald Hall formed a successful partnership to design the Spirit of St. Louis.
- Lindbergh's fame highlighted the challenges of uneven credit in partnerships, where one partner often receives most recognition.
- This case underscores the significance of equitable acknowledgment in joint ventures.
Third Story: Modern Space Exploration
- Norris shares insights from his experience at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where partnerships were vital in developing technology for Mars exploration.
- Collaborations with gaming companies led to innovative use of virtual reality in rover operations.
- The experience emphasized the need for building strong team relationships to foster effective communication and creativity without the burden of financial transactions complicating collaboration.

Overall, Norris concludes with a call to harness the opportunities present at the conference for forming partnerships. By emphasizing collaboration and shared goals, individuals can unlock innovative solutions applicable to various fields.

00:00:12.010 Good morning everybody! I want to start by saying that despite some really heroic efforts on the part of the crew here, the presentation is not going to have audio this morning. Sorry about that. So, I'm going to need help with sound effects throughout the presentation.

00:00:22.869 There are a few key points in this presentation that need emphasis with sound. My name is Jeff Norris and I'm really happy to be here. I hope everyone is having a great conference. We're all software people and we came here primarily to learn about software, but this morning I'm going to talk about something that I think is equally important in our work, which is partnership.

00:00:37.660 I'm going to tell you three stories of how partnership has shaped inventions from the great eras of exploration: sea, air, and space. I will draw some lessons from those stories about how we should be forming partnerships in our own work today. So, because we've got a little late start, let's get started. My first story is from the era of maritime exploration, a time of great uncertainty in navigation.

00:01:14.710 Our maps were confused by the fact that we didn't really know where we were at any particular time. Our position in a vessel was often up to the guesswork of a ship's navigator, and they often guessed wrong with disastrous effects. In 1707, the British government lost four warships and two thousand men when the Admiral of that fleet couldn't correctly determine the location of their boats.

00:01:40.599 This brings the Empire to a point of desperation, and they form a charter for a new Board of Longitude, offering the Longitude Prize: £20,000, or about five and a half million dollars today, for the person who can provide the first practical solution for finding longitude at sea, or your position from east to west on a map.

00:02:06.729 You see, latitude was never really the problem. An early mariner, even with just a stick and a string held between their teeth and with something like this sextant, could find it quite accurately. A sextant is a device used to measure the angles of celestial bodies above the horizon, or between celestial bodies.

00:02:30.080 Using the sextant, mariners would measure the angle of the Sun over the horizon to determine the time of day, which was a frequent necessity. In fact, if a mariner were to measure the altitude of the star Polaris, or the North Star, over the horizon, they could determine their latitude in the northern hemisphere.

00:03:02.450 This ease with which people could find latitude using something like a sextant makes it unsurprising that when they wanted to define longitude, they also looked to the sky. You may have noticed that the Moon moves across the sky from east to west, just like the Sun and stars, but what you may not have noticed is that the Moon moves across the sky a little slower.

00:03:34.040 So, if you were looking at the Moon as a mariner, with a sextant, you could measure the angular distance between the Moon and a reference star like Regulus. If you could find that angular distance, you could then calculate the linear apparent visual distance between that star and the Moon. This process is known as measuring the lunar distance, which is critical for our first story because with the lunar distance, you can calculate longitude.

00:04:14.180 It’s actually quite simple: you just account for the altitudes of the two objects in the sky, which causes aberrations in their appearance, and don't forget the apparent diameter of the Moon, which changes as it moves in its orbit around the Earth. You also need to make some corrections for parallax because the Moon looks different from different places on Earth.

00:04:54.320 You would then plug all that into some simple systems of trigonometric equations. However, you wouldn't have a calculator on your boat, so you'd have to look up all these trigonometric functions in a table, since calculators hadn't been invented yet.

00:05:12.260 While you're doing this, the wind is blowing, the sea is churning, and the Moon is moving. The problem I'm describing here is why even a skilled sea captain couldn't find longitude in less than four hours at sea. We need an alternative, and there is one. You see, the Sun sets at one specific point during a day, almost like the hand of a clock.

00:05:45.850 If you're out in the middle of the North Atlantic and you know that the Sun just set, and by some magical ability, you knew that in London the Sun had set exactly two hours ago, then you would know your longitude on Earth. There are 360 degrees around the globe, taking 24 hours for the Sun to go all the way around, so each 15 degrees equals one hour of difference. If the Sun set two hours ago, then you are 30 degrees away from London.

00:06:44.000 Of course, how do you do that? You might think: 'I just need to bring a clock!' But the problem is that clocks of that time don't function well on the rocking boats we are trying to cross the ocean in. So this unfortunately is not a viable option given the technology of the time.

00:07:09.300 However, there would become two main likely approaches for solving the longitude problem: the lunar distance method and the chronometer, or a really accurate clock. I would like to introduce you to the two gentlemen who were the leading proponents of each approach. On the left, we have Nevil Maskelyne, a member of the British elite intelligentsia and a master astronomer formally educated and deeply invested in the lunar distance method.

00:07:36.420 On the right, we have a country carpenter named John Harrison. He taught himself a little science on the side and fixed a few clocks in his spare time. This probably doesn't feel like too much of a fair fight—master astronomer versus a country carpenter—but don't count John out just yet because he's got a couple tricks up his sleeve. Nevil Maskelyne, with powerful friends including Sir Isaac Newton, asserts that lunar distance is the only method worth pursuing to solve the longitude problem.

00:08:30.410 In fact, Maskelyne becomes the de facto head of the Board of Longitude and convinces the British Crown to build the Greenwich Observatory, a veritable temple to astronomy that houses royal astronomers. On the other hand, John Harrison didn't get that memo. Maybe he didn’t travel in royal society circles enough, but he spends the next five years of his life building a sea clock.

00:09:03.940 This is an incredible achievement, and we should take a moment to appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of his sea clock. There are many advances in timekeeping technology represented by this clock, including a revolutionary escapement. Parts of this clock were made of wood to exude a natural oil that lubricated the clock as it ran. Rather than using pendulums, it used a system of springs and counterweights to maintain time at sea—an important factor since the clock must operate on a rocking boat.

00:09:54.630 John finishes the sea clock and brings it to the Board of Longitude, demanding a sea trial, which is a condition for claiming the Longitude Prize. His clock must go across the Atlantic and back again, correctly determining the vessel's position. They deny him this sea trial, instead requiring a pre-trial because they are not sure about his contraption. He sails to Lisbon on a vessel, and it goes well, saving that fleet from disaster on a group of rocks south of Dead Man's Point.

00:10:36.920 But he should have said, 'You know what? I'm ready for my real trial,' but instead he was unsatisfied with his first creation. So, what do you do when you’re not entirely satisfied with your creation after spending five years on it? You could make a few tweaks, but not John. He abandons it and builds a completely new clock—his second sea clock. After another five years, he discovers another flaw in it.

00:11:05.310 While he might still have won the Longitude Prize, he decides it's not good enough and that he will have to make more adjustments. After spending over ten years building clocks, he spends 17 more years creating his third clock. Think about that—17 years, essentially in solitary work, living a meager existence doing carpentry and clock repair to make ends meet.

00:11:59.110 During all this time, the proponents of the lunar distance method, including the Royal astronomer James Bradley and Nevil Maskelyne, are working diligently to perfect the lunar distance method but have yet to achieve the ease that allows a ship captain to use it effectively. At this point, the story takes a turn as James Bradley uses his position as Royal astronomer and head of the Board of Longitude to delay testing of Harrison's third sea clock.

00:12:34.770 He tries to buy time for his friend Nevil Maskelyne to finish developing the necessary tables, with the intention of winning the prize. Bradley is competing for the Board of Longitude prize and is the chairman of it, which is quite the conflict of interest. Unfortunately, during these delays, John Harrison completes what would become his masterpiece: his fourth sea clock.

00:13:14.700 I know it doesn’t look like the work of the same person, but Harrison has figured out how to compress all that ungainly apparatus down into something that's essentially a large pocket watch. And all the delays by Bradley and his group only ensure that John has the time he needs to finish that fourth sea clock, which is tested across the ocean.

00:13:51.960 John's son, William, is the one who goes across the ocean to Barbados with this fourth sea clock, and it performs remarkably well, losing just a few seconds during the entire ocean crossing. It determines the location of the boat far more accurately than anyone else aboard can. They arrive jubilant, and the vessel’s captain is so impressed that he awards William Harrison an octant as a trophy of the vanquished foe.

00:14:25.650 All that remained was for the Harrisons to receive final certification from the Board of Longitude, both in Barbados and then again when they returned to London. While there in Barbados, they needed to meet with an expert from the Board of Longitude. Who do you think they picked? None other than Nevil Maskelyne, who was there testing his method to try and win the prize.

00:14:57.890 The very man who was set to determine if their clock had worked was also their direct competitor for the prize. Despite this, Nevil agrees and concedes that yes, the clock has indeed worked. He then returns to London, but soon after, something unexpected happens: the Royal Astronomer dies, and a new one must be appointed.

00:15:36.090 You guessed it—Nevil Maskelyne is appointed. Once in charge, rather than awarding the prize to the victorious John Harrison, he changes the rules. John is informed that while he satisfied all of the conditions outlined for the previous Longitude Prize, the new prize entails surrendering all designs for the clock.

00:16:12.410 He is instructed to disassemble and reassemble the clock in front of an expert panel, including his competitors and rival clockmakers. Additionally, John must build two more identical clocks. Unfortunately for John, his diagrams and drawings have been stolen by Nevil Maskelyne, who published them publicly. The irony is that John's diagrams were confusing, and no one could decipher them.

00:17:03.420 To make matters worse, Nevil Maskelyne shows up at John Harrison's door with a written order from the Board of Longitude demanding that he surrender all of his clocks for testing. This act effectively amounts to robbery. Maskelyne walks away with over 20 years of John's work, taking them back to Greenwich and testing them under unreasonable conditions, only to find them unsuitable.

00:17:55.300 You may be thinking John Harrison has been gravely wronged. Fortunately, he is not entirely alone; he appeals to King George III, a situation emphasizing the severity of his treatment. Outraged, the king orders the Board of Longitude to rectify the wrongs done to John and awards him most of the money he was owed. However, the honor of winning the Longitude Prize is not conferred to him.

00:18:33.040 Instead, the committee is dissolved rather than awarding John the prize, which is rather dismissive. You might feel let down because I promised you a story of partnership, but this has become a story of the disastrous lack of partnership. Nevil certainly comes across as the villain, but John did not help matters either.

00:19:19.490 John worked independently, trusting no one. The problem was that, despite his genius, he struggled to articulate his ideas clearly in writing or through drawings, and lacking political prowess, he couldn't successfully champion his invention in the world. This is likely why it took him nearly three decades to achieve his goals.

00:19:58.580 Imagine what these two gentlemen might have accomplished together as partners—master astronomer and clockmaker, both passionate about the same problem yet coming from entirely different backgrounds. They had the makings of an incredible partnership. In fact, it was the union of their approaches that now guides every spacecraft I help operate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

00:20:35.930 On the left, a modern star tracker; on the right, the soon-to-be-launched deep-space atomic clock. Every spacecraft requires celestial navigation and extremely precise timekeeping to know its location as it travels through space. Sadly, reconciliation for these two trailblazers wasn't to be found until many years later—in the stars.

00:21:25.050 Now, let's move on to our next story, which takes place 200 years later in aviation. The Wright Brothers had just made their first flight, and aviation is at a vulnerable stage; many viewed it as a ridiculous circus act. This skepticism was justified because most people saw aviation for the first time during traveling shows.

00:21:55.410 They observed people walking on wings, parachuting, and performing bizarre acrobatics, effectively convincing the public that only an idiot would climb aboard an airplane. A hotel owner named Raymond Orteig decided to help correct this perception by creating a new prize: the Orteig Prize.

00:22:34.230 This prize, not as grand as the Longitude Prize, is worth about $350,000 in today's dollars, and it was to be awarded to the first person or people to make a nonstop flight between New York and Paris in either direction. To grasp how ridiculous this notion was at the time, consider the aircraft design of that era.

00:23:00.490 This is the de Havilland Tiger Moth, made from wood and fabric, held together with glue and rope. You might ask yourself who would have the audacity to fly in one of these planes—and I can say it was me! My dad owned a Tiger Moth when I was young, and my experiences flying in it were like nothing you'd find in modern aviation.

00:23:29.200 It's loud and windy, constantly shaking, making you feel it might just come apart. You always felt you were flying alongside cars that were passing you in the strong headwind; the whole experience is punctuated by the smell of gasoline, as every Tiger Moth seems to have a leaky fuel tank. It is a far more romantic era of aviation.

00:24:09.030 One of the early uses of de Havilland planes was in delivering the very first airmail in the United States. The first pilot for the second airmail route: none other than Charles Lindbergh, a name you're likely familiar with. Charles was no stranger to the dangers of early aviation; he was a barnstormer and began his journey as an airmail pilot.

00:24:50.480 Interestingly enough, Charles crashed not once, but twice, during his flights, thanks to parachutes that saved his life by allowing him to jump out. While flying these late-night airmail routes, he thought intensely about competing for the Orteig Prize—his desire to secure longitude further motivated him.

00:25:28.880 With the prize reissued after its first five years expired due to no attempts being made, several aircraft companies were ready to join in. However, all refused to sell Lindbergh a plane; he was seen as a nobody, untrusted in aviation. One company agreed to sell him a plane, but stipulated that he couldn’t fly it due to his inexperience.

00:26:13.880 Ultimately, after facing numerous hurdles trying to purchase a plane, Charles had one option left. He telegrammed Donald Hall, asking if he could construct a plane that could fly nonstop from New York to Paris in two months. To his surprise, Donald quickly responded, "Sure!" Thus began a true partnership.

00:26:59.930 Charles and Donald shared an office in California, never being far apart for two months. While Lindbergh received acclaim for his endurance during the cross-Atlantic flight, Hall, the engineer and chief designer of the Spirit of St. Louis, worked tirelessly. He often spent 36-hour shifts at his desk to ensure the designs were ready for the mechanics in the shop.

00:27:52.780 The team faced many challenges; for instance, they built a wing larger than anything they had constructed before, but it wouldn't fit out the factory door. Instead of demolishing walls, they had a crew push the boxcar under the window, allowing them to lower the plane wing out. This quick decision highlighted their innovation and efficiency.

00:28:39.540 Now, let's take a look at the marvelous machine that Donald and his team created: the Spirit of St. Louis. The plane featured an unusually long wingspan, making it one of the heaviest planes ever built for that size. Nearly every cavity in the fuselage was filled with fuel, an absolute necessity for the long journey ahead.

00:29:19.520 In his pursuit of efficiency, Charles Lindbergh sacrificed many comforts; no light fixtures or parachutes were on the plane, as they wouldn't be needed. While other competitors outfitted their planes with couches and refrigerators, Charles had a simple wicker chair to endure 34 hours in flight. Notably, there were no front windows in the Spirit of St. Louis, and he had to lean out or use a makeshift periscope to see.

00:29:56.890 This focus on singular purpose, an essential engineering lesson, led to Lindbergh’s success. When he returned home, he was the most famous person on Earth, celebrated with ticker-tape parades, and awarded many accolades. Yet, as you watch Charles being hailed as a hero, where is Donald Hall? Despite the plane's engineering feats, he isn't celebrated alongside Lindbergh.

00:30:44.640 There's no denying that Charles could not have accomplished his mission without the engineering brilliance of Donald Hall and the entire team behind him. However, the spotlight was only big enough for one star. Lindbergh didn't do much to alleviate the situation—his book, titled 'We,' gives little credit to the people who built the plane.

00:31:23.940 As previously stated, this partnership was fantastic and could not have succeeded without the combined efforts of Lindbergh and Hall, yet credit in partnerships isn't always evenly distributed. That fact should remain at the front of our minds as we forge partnerships; if credit cannot be shared equitably, then the partnerships will be doomed.

00:32:05.070 I’ve shared two stories of partnership about remarkable people, and now I’ll tell you a third story about an ordinary person—it's me. I want to be clear that by putting my story in the same talk as those of Lindbergh and Harrison, I do not mean to suggest my work measures up to theirs; however, it’s intimately relevant to our discussion today.

00:32:38.510 While lucky Lindbergh may have landed his Spirit of St. Louis in the Smithsonian, my team landed our spirit on Mars. This is the Spirit Mars rover! I was part of the team that helped build the control system for this Rover and its sister systems: the Opportunity and the Curiosity Mars rovers.

00:33:11.520 Throughout my experience assisting in operating the Spirit rover, I contemplated how we explore planets—methods have evolved drastically over time. Unlike the physical presence that characterizes earthly exploration, we now ask people to explore other planets through screens, forming mental models based on limited images.

00:33:56.090 Worse yet, multiple individuals are forming these diverse models, often leading to flawed assumptions not due to any genius on their part, but simply due to the limitations of the medium! The goal of our exploration should be to empower these explorers through natural abilities, rather than hinder them with confusing imagery.

00:34:43.420 To overcome this challenge, my team has looked to video games. Why partner with video game companies? Because their technologies and devices are expertly crafted to make you feel as though you are somewhere else. One particular technology worth noting is that of head-mounted displays.

00:35:34.450 Imagine yourself seated on a roller coaster; there's this sound, and while you look at an amazing view, you may feel strange in your stomach. Now, take that experience a step further—what if the screen surrounded your entire vision for a more immersive effect? Suddenly, your perceptions are heightened, and every small change in the visual can alter your response, beautifully illustrating our simplified perceptions.

00:36:15.620 What would happen if we took it even further? Well, if virtual reality can elicit such powerful emotions from ordinary experiences, then it surely can aid my team as well. We've formed a series of partnerships across technology companies to enhance exploration on Mars.

00:36:55.600 For instance, we collaborated with Oculus to create some initial renderings of the Curiosity Mars rover's environment. Studies demonstrated that people's perceptions of the rover's environment improved significantly when viewed through a head-mounted display. More recently, we’ve partnered with Microsoft on the Hololens.

00:37:44.120 This partnership yields valuable lessons that tie together the stories we’ve explored today. Upon initial interaction with the Hololens, we saw tremendous potential in the device. So, I approached the associate director at JPL and requested immediate funding—and to his credit, he agreed.

00:38:32.700 Just a week later, I moved a significant portion of my team to Redmond, Washington. We integrated our teams seamlessly, much like Donald Hall and Charles Lindbergh. For about two months, we shared an office and resources, trying to foster a strong sense of community during that brief period.

00:39:25.320 Our experiences taught us how crucial team building could be in such a limited timeframe—we hosted cookouts, poker games, and connected on a personal level to establish rapport. This connection allowed us to work more effectively as a team and share candid feedback openly.

00:40:13.010 Another advantage of this collaboration is that while we each brought our unique expertise, the video game development team's experience in human interaction systems complemented my team’s space exploration expertise. It’s a classic illustration of how collaborative efforts yield extraordinary results when teams unite toward a shared goal.

00:41:05.110 Notably, no funding changed hands during this partnership. Our advice is to think about forming effective collaborations: take money off the table and see how that influences creativity—favoring imagination over bureaucracy greatly facilitates the collaboration process.

00:41:41.900 We quickly established a simple agreement determining how we would work together rather than getting bogged down in legal negotiations. As in the Spirit of St. Louis project, the focus was on building something significant first, outlining the specifics later. Lawyers get involved eventually, but not before the real work is done.

00:42:26.800 As I conclude, I encourage you to consider the opportunities available to you during this conference. While you're here to learn about technology, recognize the potential for collaboration with those around you. Instead of merely shaking hands and saying hello, actively engage with others about their work and explore how collective efforts could lead to impactful solutions.

00:43:09.260 You might be surprised to find out just how successful partnerships can blossom from conversations initiated here today. Thank you very much for your attention!