Why Does James Dyson Skip Experts and Just Build?

David Senra says James Dyson learned from Jeremy Fry to skip the calculations and the experts and just build, and Senra thinks the habit is now foundational to Dyson's business building philosophy. When an idea came, Fry did not sit down and process it through pages of calculations, and he did not argue it through with anyone. He went out and built it. Dyson does the same.

When Dyson came in with an idea, Fry offered no more advice than where the workshop is, go and do it. If they needed to weld the thing, get a welder and weld it. On hydrodynamics, the lake is down there, the Land Rover is over there, take a plank of wood down to the lake, tow it behind the boat, and see what happens. College had taught Dyson to revere experts and expertise. Fry ridiculed the habit. With enthusiasm and intelligence, anything was possible. No research, no preliminary sketches. If it did not work one way, try another way until it did. They got on extremely quickly.

The root principle was to do things your way. It did not matter how other people did it, or whether it could be done better. As long as it works and it is exciting, people will follow you. Fry, more than anyone else, encouraged Dyson to think for himself and just do it. Half a century later, Dyson still puts into practice at Dyson some of what Fry practiced when Dyson worked for him.