Should 'Moonshot projects" be given a try or should incemantal improvement be preffered

 Imagine a wall that is three meters tall. Now imagine trying to jump to the top of that wall. We could try multiple times, tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of times to try and reach the top, but chances are, we won't be able to do anything, but we keep trying, repeatedly and failing. Then another person comes along and takes the stairs to the top of the wall.

Now, everybody would probably laugh at the person trying to jump to the top of the wall like a deluded maniac, not realising that supposed ‘Moonshot’ projects are the same. Sure, the idea of finding a cure for all diseases within a decade or being able to teleport them to any corner of the earth may seem cool, but it is as far-fetched as that one friend's ideas; the chances of it being successful are nothing. Rather, it is better to make actual developments that not only help society today but also pave the way for a much better tomorrow.

Let's look at one example of a moonshot project that failed miserably. The Google Glass project (Srivastava, 2021c), launched in 2013, was intended to be a pair of glasses that could provide real-time information and record whenever you wanted. They were supposed to be glasses so advanced that they would rival a science-fiction comic. What happened? It ended up being an abysmal failure: its battery wouldn’t work properly, it had very limited functionality, and it cost Google $ 995 million. It failed so terribly that it set a new benchmark for failure.

Furthermore, there was a video game called Star Citizen, which started development in 2012. It was supposed to be a video game that simulated an entire universe. What ended up happening? Even though it raised $600 million, it is still not fully complete as of 2026, and users experience frequent crashes, bugs, and other issues. What was supposed to be one of the greatest video games ever just became a symbol of hopelessness. (The Infographics Show, 2020)

On the other end, we have slow incremental development. Did you know that making even 1% improvement each day can make you almost 38 times better? Like that, making even the tiniest of developments each day will not only make a better planet for us every day, but in many, many years' time, it will help achieve a goal that might be even bigger than the moonshot goal we were expecting, and humanity could be able to create something so wild that not even the craziest of revolutionaries would be able to imagine.

Take phones. In 1970, a handheld device was developed that could help us do anything was not just bonkers, it couldn’t even be imagined. In 1973, Martin Cooper built the world's first cell phone (Gregersen, 2018). Slowly, more inventions came along. Revolutionaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made computers and advanced silicon-based technology (Mayo and Benson, 2026), and we further developed computational technology. In 2008, Steve Jobs built the world's first iPhone (Boyo, 2024). Now, almost every single human being, from Los Angeles to Sydney and from Moscow to Cape Town, has a phone with which we not only communicate with anyone, but also play games, check the news, and do almost anything. This way, we created one of humanity's most important inventions, not by a single giant project, but through collective efforts and incremental improvements over many years.

However, this does not mean that moonshot projects are completely useless at all. These projects can inspire scientists and push them to try to push the walls of science and break the walls of physics. It can inspire nations to never stop dreaming and keep on believing. It can inspire children sitting in their beds, and make them believe that the world is their oyster, and everything is possible.

In fact, in some cases, moonshot projects can succeed, but they often involve immense pressure, where failure doesn’t just mean sadness but the potential death of a nation. Take the Manhattan Project (National Park Service, 2023). In 1942, a letter was written to the USA by Albert Einstein stating that the Germans were building an atomic bomb, and this alerted the Americans. Within weeks, all of the smartest scientists in America assembled in New Mexico to build the world's first nuclear weapon, and they couldn’t lose to Hitler at any cost. Within 3 years, they somehow built history's deadliest weapon, something that would have normally taken decades, and launched it at Japan. It caused destruction, but ended one of the most, if not the most deadliest wars in history, and is the best example of a moonshot project that found success.

 

So yes, moonshot projects may work, but to actually make them a success requires concentrated dedication, the grit of a tiger, and the brainpower of a hundred newtons – and even then the chances of them working are as slim as a toothpick. Instead, we can just stick to the good old way of small but consistent development, make our beloved planet better every single day, and one day, after numerous small