The Value of Impossible Challenges

When was the last time you set yourself an ‘impossible’ challenge — something that was certain to bring you face-to-face with frustration and failure?

“We can’t do that.”

Back in 2012, I taught a class at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces called Cyberpower and National Security. As part of the learning outcomes for the course, I wanted my students to accept the reality that digital interconnectivity and cheap digital technology was ushering in a new kind of security environment where real power wasn’t just held by nation states.

So on the first day, I laid out a challenge to my class:

They just stared at me in silence.

Finally, one brave soul said, “We study social science and law, not engineering or computer science. We can’t do that.”

I replied, “I know you can’t. Not yet. But you’ll have a budget, and something called the Internet. I’m confident that you can learn everything you need to know to pull this off through research, and asking other people for help.”

The Path of Learning

The great blessing was that my students were soldiers, and German ones at that. Not only were they willing to accept a ridiculous mission, they were ridiculously organized in tackling the project management. The first team they created was a legal affairs group to research the relevant regulations, in the process, identifying the few hundred square meters of the country where it could be legally tested.

They also, per requirements, shared their process online through an anonymous blog, where they documented their process, and shared open questions like, “how do you program an autopilot?”

The WiFi hacking was particularly frustrating for them until one of the quieter students came in one day with a huge grin on her face, and told me that she’s solved the challenge with the help of her boyfriend, who happened to be a skilled hacker:

Slowly, the drone took shape, and what was seen as something of an absurd demand eventually came to life one day in an open field.

As one student later recalled in his end-of-year assessment,

The project wasn’t a complete success, as the combination of the early autopilot and proximity sensors proved a bit too tricky for them to land the drone on a rooftop by itself, but this didn’t discourage them from attacking the problem, and gaining confidence through facing down frustration and uncertainty. With autonomous vehicles and drones in the news every day now, they look on this slice of the future as informed participants, not just passive observers.

The Impossible Path to the Future

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