What I discovered in doing the research is that the stories we've been told

about top performance are wrong. There are two big stories that we've been told throughout

our lives about what it takes to achieve at the highest levels. But there's a third story,

and it's one that is not often told yet. It is the path through which a remarkable number

of top performers in all kinds of field from adventures to entrepreneurs to artists have risen

over the course of their lives. And that path is reverse engineering and reverse engineering

simply means finding extraordinary examples in your field and then working backward to figure

out how they were made and distilling down the lessons that you identify in the works of others

to create something entirely new. I'm Srini Rao and this is the unmistakable creative podcast

where you get a window into the stories and insights of the most innovative and creative minds

started movements, built-driving businesses, written best-selling books and created in

insanely interesting art. For more, check out our 500 episode archive at unmistakablecreative.com.

Ron, welcome to the unmistakable creative. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.

My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, it is my pleasure to have you here. So I found out about your work by way of one of our

mutual friends. And at this point, I can't even remember who it is because so many people that

have been guests have referred other ones. I think it might have been Dory Clark, but she

told me that you had a new book out called Decoding Greatness, which is all about the science of

reverse engineering, all of which we will talk about. But as you know from having her the show,

that is definitely not where we're going to start. So I thought I'm starting asking you what

did your parents do for work and how did that end up shaping and influencing choices that you've

made throughout your life in your career? Well, my dad is a neurologist and my mother is a pharmacist

...