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Iedereen kan landen op de maan: In 8 stappen naar een Apollo Mindset
De maanlanding, een ‘onmogelijke’ missie, werd een astronomisch succes. In tegenstelling tot gangbare theorieën triomfeerde hier geen excentrieke eenling, maar een team doodnormale mensen. Wat was hun geheim en hoe kunnen we dit toepassen in ons eigen leven?
Psycholoog Richard Wiseman verwerkt interviews met de nog levende teamleden, nieuw psychologisch onderzoek en praktische technieken. Zijn boek geeft 8 onmisbare lessen over teamwork, moed, doorzettingsvermogen en creativiteit.
Psycholoog Richard Wiseman verwerkt interviews met de nog levende teamleden, nieuw psychologisch onderzoek en praktische technieken. Zijn boek geeft 8 onmisbare lessen over teamwork, moed, doorzettingsvermogen en creativiteit.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 24, 2019
75 people are currently reading
1539 people want to read
About the author
Richard Wiseman
54 books582 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a degree in psychology from University College London and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.
Richard currently holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he has gained an international reputation for research into psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion, and illusion. He has published over 50 papers in leading peer reviewed academic journals (including Nature and Psychological Bulletin), and his work has been cited in over 20 introductory textbooks.
A passionate advocate for science, his best-selling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he has presented keynote addresses at several organisations, including Microsoft, The Royal Society, Caltech, and Google.
Richard is the most followed British psychologist on Twitter, and has created viral videos that have received over 40 million views. Over 2 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and he has acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, The MythBusters, CBS’s The Mentalist, and Heston Blumenthal, Nick Cave, and the West End play ‘Ghost Stories’.
Richard is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle, an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, and a Fellow of the Rationalist Association. He is one of the most frequently quoted psychologists in the British media and was recently listed in the Independent On Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.
He likes sushi, is fond of dogs, and finds Arrested Development very funny.
Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a degree in psychology from University College London and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.
Richard currently holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he has gained an international reputation for research into psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion, and illusion. He has published over 50 papers in leading peer reviewed academic journals (including Nature and Psychological Bulletin), and his work has been cited in over 20 introductory textbooks.
A passionate advocate for science, his best-selling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he has presented keynote addresses at several organisations, including Microsoft, The Royal Society, Caltech, and Google.
Richard is the most followed British psychologist on Twitter, and has created viral videos that have received over 40 million views. Over 2 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and he has acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, The MythBusters, CBS’s The Mentalist, and Heston Blumenthal, Nick Cave, and the West End play ‘Ghost Stories’.
Richard is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle, an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, and a Fellow of the Rationalist Association. He is one of the most frequently quoted psychologists in the British media and was recently listed in the Independent On Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.
He likes sushi, is fond of dogs, and finds Arrested Development very funny.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 26, 2019
This book does a great job of connecting psychological/self-help principles with a real-life situation. Each chapter describes one aspect of the space program that put Americans on the moon in the 1960s and then connects that aspect with one principle for success. While none of these principles were new to me, it was interesting to see how they worked in action and how they led to success.
At times the book feels a little didactic and simplistic. “Do this and you will change and you will have success.” But if you take those parts (generally toward the end of the chapters where the author is transitioning from narrative about the space program to imperatives about how to apply the lessons of the chapter) with a grain of salt, the book can be quite helpful. It is impressive how many principles he was able to overview in a relatively short book.
At times the book feels a little didactic and simplistic. “Do this and you will change and you will have success.” But if you take those parts (generally toward the end of the chapters where the author is transitioning from narrative about the space program to imperatives about how to apply the lessons of the chapter) with a grain of salt, the book can be quite helpful. It is impressive how many principles he was able to overview in a relatively short book.
July 19, 2019
For me, the balance between the self help and the story was off. I really enjoyed the history aspects of this book, and I would have loved more of those. The lesson portion could have been cut by half (or more). That said, I found the psychology aspect fascinating and applicable to my personal and professional life. There are valuable lessons to be learned from the Apollo program, I just got bored when that wasn’t the focus.
September 5, 2022
This book works on two levels:
1. The story of how we got to the moon within a decade, which as every year passes seems more and mor remarkable.
2. How to achieve similar success in your life including the issues of failure, innovation, responsibility, courage, being prepared, flexibility and passion.
Two fun facts from the book:
1. The average age of mission controllers in 1969 was 26 years old. The sources for this fact did not make it easy for me to check and what does "average" mean but nevertheless....
2. Most of us have heard that our phone has more computing power than the space mission but if you think about this the computing power is on the ground in the USA and not only is the space ship reliant on communications devices but when space missions went to the far side of the moon communication devices would not work and so the navigators in the space ship had no better navigation tools than Christopher Columbus when he discovered America (Star maps etc)
1. The story of how we got to the moon within a decade, which as every year passes seems more and mor remarkable.
2. How to achieve similar success in your life including the issues of failure, innovation, responsibility, courage, being prepared, flexibility and passion.
Two fun facts from the book:
1. The average age of mission controllers in 1969 was 26 years old. The sources for this fact did not make it easy for me to check and what does "average" mean but nevertheless....
2. Most of us have heard that our phone has more computing power than the space mission but if you think about this the computing power is on the ground in the USA and not only is the space ship reliant on communications devices but when space missions went to the far side of the moon communication devices would not work and so the navigators in the space ship had no better navigation tools than Christopher Columbus when he discovered America (Star maps etc)
October 26, 2022
Newcomers to the history of moon travel and performance science will gain a lot from this book. If you're already familiar with those areas, perhaps not anything new, but the book is well- structured and entertaining. Can recommend the audio version.
April 1, 2021
This book is much more about the psychological and inspirational angle than I was expecting, which wasn't a terrible thing. It was an interesting angle for a book to take. It also has quite a bit, though, about the moon missions. I'm not exactly sure, though, what people it might appeal to most as there is quite a bit more detail about the moon than may appeal to someone looking for self-help, and maybe too much self-help for those looking for a book on the moon.
However it does make for a very interesting take on both the moon story and the self-help book.
I liked the opening part about Kennedy's speech and the first section of the book made me feel very inspired. It was probably the best part of the book for me, it very much made me feel motivated. I liked some points about how making the space race into a "race" made it easier to keep people motivated.
However, I did think that later on the psychology parts of the book became a bit ordinary and also were not as inspiringly related. I found some of the messages confusing - there was one section telling us about the value of doing nothing and another about how important it was we avoid doing nothing (avoid procrastination).
I tried some of the puzzles and found that when we were given the answers it was a bit rigid even though the book emphasises creativity and seeing things differently. Who says this is "the answer"? I thought of a different answer. The book never acknowledges "you could have thought of a different answer and maybe it's just as good". The answer to the candle puzzle says "the most elegant answer is ..." Who chooses what is the most elegant?
That kind of annoyed me because it doesn't explain 1. how elegance is measured in answers and 2. why we should value elegance at all (when it is implied that the elegant answer is however valued by the author).
The author also refers to fight or flight and completely misinterprets/mis-explains what this actually means in the survival sense and instead tells us that fight is better than flight. He also references the book The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart and talks about living your life in an unexpected way, by casting a die. He gives one positive example of something that happens in the Dice Man book to support this idea. Of course he conveniently omits that the first roll of the dice has the protagonist rape his neighbour.
Wiseman says of living your life by the roll of the die "Only choose six options you are really prepared to carry out". Well, if they are all things you would be really ok with, how risky is it? It is like another suggestion in his book to confront fears "Tell your parents, partner or closest friend how you really think of them (assuming it's positive!)" - I felt that it sounded like it wasn't asking you to really find your biggest worry, or it was even trying to avoid it. It's usually when you have to tell people something like you hate them that you have to worry about blowback, that would be a REALLY BIG fear!
To be honest, because of this I thought this book was playing it safe while urging us all to be bold.
There were some lovely little bits and pieces about the moon missions though and I like the idea that the moon missions were about a whole team, a whole unsung force, not just the famous astronauts we know so well. I like the message that getting a man on the moon was as much about the failed missions beforehand as the famous successful ones. It's a good way of thinking about the moon landing and I do think a lot can be learned from that attitude.
However it does make for a very interesting take on both the moon story and the self-help book.
I liked the opening part about Kennedy's speech and the first section of the book made me feel very inspired. It was probably the best part of the book for me, it very much made me feel motivated. I liked some points about how making the space race into a "race" made it easier to keep people motivated.
However, I did think that later on the psychology parts of the book became a bit ordinary and also were not as inspiringly related. I found some of the messages confusing - there was one section telling us about the value of doing nothing and another about how important it was we avoid doing nothing (avoid procrastination).
I tried some of the puzzles and found that when we were given the answers it was a bit rigid even though the book emphasises creativity and seeing things differently. Who says this is "the answer"? I thought of a different answer. The book never acknowledges "you could have thought of a different answer and maybe it's just as good". The answer to the candle puzzle says "the most elegant answer is ..." Who chooses what is the most elegant?
That kind of annoyed me because it doesn't explain 1. how elegance is measured in answers and 2. why we should value elegance at all (when it is implied that the elegant answer is however valued by the author).
The author also refers to fight or flight and completely misinterprets/mis-explains what this actually means in the survival sense and instead tells us that fight is better than flight. He also references the book The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart and talks about living your life in an unexpected way, by casting a die. He gives one positive example of something that happens in the Dice Man book to support this idea. Of course he conveniently omits that the first roll of the dice has the protagonist rape his neighbour.
Wiseman says of living your life by the roll of the die "Only choose six options you are really prepared to carry out". Well, if they are all things you would be really ok with, how risky is it? It is like another suggestion in his book to confront fears "Tell your parents, partner or closest friend how you really think of them (assuming it's positive!)" - I felt that it sounded like it wasn't asking you to really find your biggest worry, or it was even trying to avoid it. It's usually when you have to tell people something like you hate them that you have to worry about blowback, that would be a REALLY BIG fear!
To be honest, because of this I thought this book was playing it safe while urging us all to be bold.
There were some lovely little bits and pieces about the moon missions though and I like the idea that the moon missions were about a whole team, a whole unsung force, not just the famous astronauts we know so well. I like the message that getting a man on the moon was as much about the failed missions beforehand as the famous successful ones. It's a good way of thinking about the moon landing and I do think a lot can be learned from that attitude.
June 12, 2019
I hate self-help books. For the most part. Until I read them, then I usually like them.
And I liked Moonshot.
The angle was somewhat interesting: what was the psychology that helped land a man on the moon? And the answers to that question weren’t entirely surprising. I mean, I feel like we all know the secrets to success these days, we just need to be reminded every so often, right?
And Moonshot was a good reminder. I’d heard a lot of the psychology presented in the book before, but never in this context. It was nice to see how all of the success strategies presented were executed in the Apollo missions, and it was only that much more motivating.
There are a lot of helpful exercises, even one that goes along extremely well with the topic, The Astronaut Challenge. Knowing that all of the challenges merely required the attitude inspired me to do my best work, and I completed most of them pretty easily.
It’s books like these that prove that we already have inside us what it takes to succeed. All we need to do is hone those talents, those attitudes, and decide that we do want to succeed after all.
I often find myself embracing intentional failure, and Moonshot helped awaken me to my delusions. Even if success isn’t the only answer to life, approaching our goals and responsibilities with commitment is a necessary part of life, and it helps build character, which truly is the most important thing in life.
Whenever I start to think that success is a moral failure, I’ll try to remind myself of this book and how it showed me that it’s not. As Dr. Wiseman so succinctly put at the end, humility is the most important thing when it comes to success. And if you can succeed and retain your humility, you have succeeded indeed.
And I liked Moonshot.
The angle was somewhat interesting: what was the psychology that helped land a man on the moon? And the answers to that question weren’t entirely surprising. I mean, I feel like we all know the secrets to success these days, we just need to be reminded every so often, right?
And Moonshot was a good reminder. I’d heard a lot of the psychology presented in the book before, but never in this context. It was nice to see how all of the success strategies presented were executed in the Apollo missions, and it was only that much more motivating.
There are a lot of helpful exercises, even one that goes along extremely well with the topic, The Astronaut Challenge. Knowing that all of the challenges merely required the attitude inspired me to do my best work, and I completed most of them pretty easily.
It’s books like these that prove that we already have inside us what it takes to succeed. All we need to do is hone those talents, those attitudes, and decide that we do want to succeed after all.
I often find myself embracing intentional failure, and Moonshot helped awaken me to my delusions. Even if success isn’t the only answer to life, approaching our goals and responsibilities with commitment is a necessary part of life, and it helps build character, which truly is the most important thing in life.
Whenever I start to think that success is a moral failure, I’ll try to remind myself of this book and how it showed me that it’s not. As Dr. Wiseman so succinctly put at the end, humility is the most important thing when it comes to success. And if you can succeed and retain your humility, you have succeeded indeed.
July 12, 2019
I thought Moonshot was an incredibly fun and unique read. Part history, part self-help, and part psychology, Dr. Wiseman relates the triumphs of the Apollo missions to circumstances we may face in our own life. We may not be a President garnering passion to land a man on the moon before this decade is out, but we do need to find passion and fulfillment in our careers or relationships. We may not be astronauts having to jerry-rig an engineering solution to save ourselves from the vacuum of space, but we do need to be flexible and prepared for eventualities. I’m a huge space nut, and loved getting the chance to look at this history from a different angle. Wiseman includes short profiles on specific players in the Apollo missions, showing how this was all accomplished by regular, hardworking folks. The interviews add a fresh feel to the stories that I have heard many times over. Thank you Dr. Wiseman for such a cool idea and wonderful execution! Note: I received a copy of this book on exchange for an honest review, and all opinions are my own.
December 5, 2022
Erg interessant boek waar aan de hand van cruciale stappen in de race naar de maan een aantal belangrijke onderdelen voor succes worden ontleed. Wiseman benadrukt het belang van het team en de mindset van dat team, in plaats van de individu en zijn intelligentie. Dit waren allemaal normale mensen, en zij hebben in 9 jaar een man op de maan gezet, dus jij kan het ook. De gedachteexperimenten die Wiseman in het boek opneemt zijn ook oprecht leuk, in plaats van afleidend, wat vaak het geval is bij motivatieboeken die willen dat je iets opschrijft. Het enige wat er wat te dik op ligt is dat elk persoon die aan de maanlanding heeft meegewerkt "came from a modest background, as so many of their colleagues." Ja, het zullen niet allemaal genieën geweest zijn, maar ook geen jongens met een MBO-diploma. Verder echt een top boek.
December 16, 2025
It is amazing how by focusing your mindset, taking challenges on one tiny step at a time, and backing yourself can change how you view what you can achieve.
This book uses the Apollo program and how they got to the moon in tiny bite-sized steps, to illustrate how using this approach can help you achieve in many different areas. This approach is helpful when considering changing jobs, working for yourself, writing a book, learning a language - it is applicable pretty much anywhere.
It's also fascinating to read accounts from the team at Mission Control on how they faced the unending number of daily issues and challenges, any one of which could have meant failure. However, they kept picking themselves up, thought of different ways to do things and learnt from their mistakes and made history.
This book uses the Apollo program and how they got to the moon in tiny bite-sized steps, to illustrate how using this approach can help you achieve in many different areas. This approach is helpful when considering changing jobs, working for yourself, writing a book, learning a language - it is applicable pretty much anywhere.
It's also fascinating to read accounts from the team at Mission Control on how they faced the unending number of daily issues and challenges, any one of which could have meant failure. However, they kept picking themselves up, thought of different ways to do things and learnt from their mistakes and made history.
February 4, 2021
This book is amazing and I enjoyed every page. Wiseman describes the Apollo missions like you see them in movies, just in a way that you feel like you can reach your own moon. He starts out every chapther by giving a describtion of how this chapther relates to the Apollo mission, he then proceeds into using this knowledge and what you can do to act accordingly. He has some tasks throughout the chapther, and finnishs it with a summary, so you easily can look through the book even years after you have read it. This book is a must read!
July 16, 2024
A very exciting and informative Book. The author explains the excitement and danger of the Gemini and Apollo missions during the 1960s. Wiseman offers some practical, if not trivial, recommendations for achieving goals. The importance of mindset is heavily influenced by Carol Dweck's growth mindset theory, and the importance of taking responsibility is integrated into Wiseman's thesis. Critically, however, Wiseman examines any criticisms of the ideas he put forward. Nevertheless, it is a highly readable book.
August 10, 2019
Great book with some great, practical insights from the lessons of the Apollo program to put a man on the moon--inspired by US President Kennedy's vision for the '60s. Great ideas on how to spark creativity and to get "impossible" things done. Includes some great self-assessments that give you insight into how you're wired for life--and some changes you might make to go further. Listened to the audiobook on my iPhone (while on vacation in Switzerland); borrowed from the library.
July 5, 2021
Most of the self help books try to put forward its points along with anecdotes and research outcomes. But this one does the other way round. Robert Wiseman takes a real life project starting from how this project came into life and taking us through various stages of it until the end. And on this journey, Robert states us lessons that can be taken out of these stages. By far the most interesting self help book I have ever read
September 18, 2019
I read this book electronically and am considering buying the physical book for reference later. Great book on aspects of the moon landing history that I’ve never read anywhere else. Great approaches to understand people and advice that should help me as a mentor at work.
April 21, 2023
There were a lot of mini exercises throughout. The scientific details of the NASA missions didn't interest me as much as I thought they would. I was more interested in the people involved, their actions, and responses.
December 29, 2024
10, 9, 8, admission sequence start...
historical perspective, what creates success, it's complicated like a lunar flight
audio narration good, interactive quizzes a bit hard with audio...hit pause if you can.
3,2,1.
historical perspective, what creates success, it's complicated like a lunar flight
audio narration good, interactive quizzes a bit hard with audio...hit pause if you can.
3,2,1.
June 16, 2019
Enjoyed and was pleasently surprised by the modern examples in reference to organization and team building projects.
July 15, 2019
Really enjoyed this part history, part self-help guide by the always enlightening (and humorous) Wiseman. Good tips to add to your life ... hell they worked for Apollo!
July 23, 2019
There are really great, practical tips that have already helped me in my own life. The book can get a bit boring, however, there isn't a lot of super interesting inside info or anything.
August 19, 2019
REALLY enjoyed this book! Great new take on the Apollo missions, using a new perspective.
February 13, 2020
Using this as a text for a course.
March 27, 2020
Very enjoyable. Positive book with and uplifting feel.
October 31, 2020
Well written, very interesting and motivating. Focused on Passion, innovation, responsibility, preparedness, and flexibility. Touched on the 6 Habits and had a couple of good questionnaires.
June 2, 2021
"Your everyday life is a direct result of the Moon missions."
Read
August 17, 2022It was okay?? Good for people who likes space, bc you won't be bored reading a non fic!!
December 22, 2022
I found this book in our university library. The book is easy to read and very beautifully combines the history and nonfiction parts of this book. It was so interesting that I read 100 pages in one day, which is very surprising for me how this book held my attention.
June 12, 2023
The points required for an entrepreneurial and innovative self and company
January 19, 2025
Tons of takeaway life lessons for any reader.
August 9, 2023
Motivational in a "how do we leverage the most significant accomplishment of the 20th century to sell a book" kind of way
April 18, 2020
Richard Wiseman uses the evocative case study of the moon landing to provide a roadmap for what it takes to achieve big dreams, laying out research-backed insights along the way. The bottom line - set BIG goals, consider all possible problems you'll encounter as you go along, get started, and celebrate small wins along the way!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews