The First Principles Thinking Method

This is a great approach for solving complex problems and an amazing critical thinking tool, which was additionally popularized by Elon Musk in his YouTube talks, although we can trace the application back to Aristotle. It is focused on exploring the fundamental truths, or core elements of some issue that you cannot further break down. Simply, it’s about decomposing or challenging the existing knowledge structure in order to find the essence, and distinct it from any possible assumptions or variable elements.
Description: To better understand “the first principles thinking” – we should compare it to so-called standard, conventional thinking. For example, when we face a novel situation – we are always searching for our past experiences, case studies how others deal with the same issue and similar – basically, relying on analogy, looking for similarities, or well-known best-practices. We are looking at how to adjust our existing knowledge base to this novel situation – basically, looking for quick-wins.
On the other hand, “The First Principles Thinking” involves deconstructing a problem or idea to its fundamental components—its most basic truths— and then reconstructing solutions from scratch. Simply said – forget analogies, what other people do, how you did something in the past, and similar – since this is a new situation – let’s find out what’s the best possible solution for this specific case by exploring the fundamental truths. That way, we open the doors for new possibilities and explore new developmental paths.
For example, let’s go back to Elon Musk. He explored the ways of going to space by hiring different space agencies or buying rockets – and that was a very expensive solution. So, he started thinking – what we actually need to take us to the space? Essentially, all Space shuttles are built of some sort of metals and other resistant materials, you’ve got some electronics, some fuels, and brains to put the pieces together. Those are the fundamental truths for this specific issue. If you look at their individual prices (of those inputs) – it’s far cheaper than the prices he was offered for the rocket. So, he created the SpaceX Company based on those premises, or the “First Principles Thinking”.
The Video illustration is created by Natasha035 – for more details, please visit: