I recently read Steve Blanks post - Entrepreneurship is an Art not a Job (http://steveblank.com/2011/03/31/entrepreneurship-is-an-art-not-a-job/) in which he talks about what is missing from the lean-startup solution stack. Steve was making the point that there is something missing. That just teaching people this set of solutions does not make an entrepreneur. (I think I know what is missing, but I’ll leave that for a post Monday). Here I’d like to take issue with the Art vs Science distinction.

In my experience Art vs Science is a false dichotomy (unless used in the narrow sense of a lack of objective standards of success in art, though I could point to many passionate researchers turning out papers no one reads on topics no one else sees the beauty in..).

For people outside of science, the science they are exposed to just works, because it’s finished (its highly verified, already in books and the people who have discovered it are dead). It’s like only looking at established companies.

The act of science at the bleeding edge, as opposed to the end product, is extremely analogous to building a startup. You are in unknown territory with a huge number of variables, and you have to feel your way to a solution. You fail often, usually for 2-5 years, and it’s almost never clear what the best route forward is. You fail and you fail and you fail, until one day, hopefully you don't. Then you start again.

Like the lean startup solution stack, no one has figured out how to train scientists to do this either. Many fail, many quit, and many can't remember at the end why they are working so hard. Spend some time with 4th – 12th year Graduate students in, say Physics, and you'll find them going through all the same emotional ups and downs that come with creating something new where there is no road map.

I think what is missing is the same thing that is missing in the education of scientists. It has to do with solving really hard problems. How do you attack a problem and fail over and over for month or years and preserver. I think it has to do with happiness – how you lose it, how you gain it, and how you protect it.