EVERY ROOM HAS AN OPINION.
DON'T LOSE YOURS INSIDE IT.
Ideas on independent judgment, clear thinking, and holding your signal when the room gets loud.
Who is Jill Hoffman?
Jill Hoffman is a writer, speaker, founder, and lifelong observer of what happens when people enter a room.
She grew up around people who questioned what everyone else thought was possible — and then built the airplanes to prove it.
Since then, she’s spent her career in rooms with founders, engineers, executives, investors, and people trying to do things that haven’t been done before.
Her work explores a deceptively simple question:
How do you listen to the room without letting it do your thinking for you?
Speaking Keynotes and workshops for organizations where the pressure to perform certainty is highest — and where clear thinking matters most.
Writing Essays on independent thinking — and the human questions behind our most ambitious ideas. Space, AI, the future of work, and the quiet pressure to think like everyone else.
Work Together For individuals and teams who need a sharp, experienced thinking partner. Not coaching. A different conversation.
How to Build an Airplane in Your Living Room A guide to living an unconventional life
Part memoir, part manifesto. The book that started the conversation about what it really takes to build something — and what it costs to stop performing certainty you don't feel.
“The hardest part isn’t speaking your mind.
It’s knowing when the room has changed it.”
— Jill Hoffman
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Featured on Freakonomics
Featured on Stephen Dubner's series "How to Succeed at Failing" — on grit, reinvention, and what it costs to know when to walk away.
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Creator of In Her Orbit
In Her Orbit is an ongoing essay series by Jill Hoffman examining space, emerging technology, and the deeply human questions that trail behind our most ambitious ideas.
Writing for people who want to think, not just consume.
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Legendary Aerospace Family
Jill grew up watching her father, Dick Rutan, and her uncle, Burt Rutan, build aircraft most people said couldn't be built — including Voyager, the first plane to fly around the world non-stop on a single load of fuel, and SpaceShipOne, now in the Smithsonian collection. She learned early that the people who change anything are usually the ones willing to think differently from the room.
Follow Jill on Substack
A more personal side of Jill’s writing — essays, notes, observations, and ideas she’s still thinking through.