First Principles Simply Explained
The thinking technique behind Elon Musk’s success.
The way you think determines any success you want to achieve.
There is a simple exercise to solve problems no matter your education level or field of work. This technique was crucial to many innovators and thinkers such as Albert Einstein, Aristotle, and Elon Musk.
The technique I’m talking about is known as first principles (FP) or principles first. Make a habit of using it, and you’ll dramatically boost your odds of success in any project. Whether starting a business, switching jobs, acing exams, or even buying a house, applying FP to your work and problems will help you make smarter decisions.
What is First Principles Thinking
Principles are basic facts (fundamentals) that we know for sure to be true. Think of a few facts you learned at school.
Gravity pulls objects to the ground.1 + 1 = 2Water boils at a hundred degrees.
FP suggest that you should always break your problem down to its principles — the basic facts that make up the problem. Strip the problem down to its fundamentals. What do you know for sure to be true?
Thinking from FP is ideal for solving two types of problems:
- Choice-centric problems: “What career is best for me? What neighbourhood is best to buy a house in? Whom should I marry?”
- Obstacle-centric problems: “Customers don’t like my product. I have no creativity.”
How to Apply First-Principles Thinking
Consider the simple problem of making an omelette. Using FP, you can break down your problem into its basic facts.
Fact #1: I need eggs.
Fact #2: I need a pan.
Fact #3: I need oil.
Fact #4: I need a heat sourceJust by listing the facts, you’re already halfway through solving your problem. Even if you don’t know how to cook the omelette yet, you took a good step in the right direction.
Now consider a more difficult challenge: lowering battery production cost. To make electric cars cheaper, reducing batteries' cost is critical, as they are the most expensive part of an electric vehicle. Elon Musk reflects on this very problem in an interview. He beautifully shows how first-principles solves the issue. Please pay close attention to what he says.
First-principles is a physics way of looking at the world.You boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, "What are we sure is true?" and then reason up from there.Somebody can say "Battery packs are really expensive and that's just the way they will always be. Historically, it has cost $600 per kilowatt-hour, and so it’s not going to be much better than that in the future."With first principles, you block the noise and look for the absolute facts about this problem.Fact #1: A battery is made up of cobalt, nickel, aluminium, carbon, and some polymers for separation.Fact #2: If we buy every material on the London Metal Exchange, it’s going to cost us $80 per kilowatt-hour more or less.Now you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell. As a result you can have batteries that are much cheaper than anyone realises.
Notice how Musk starts by boiling down the problem to its bare facts — principles first. Doing so, he’s immediately able to pinpoint an area in which his team can adjust to make cheaper batteries.
That’s it. That’s how FP can solve tiny to huge problems. It is crucial in all aspect of life, from prepping a dish to scaling a multibillion-dollar company.
I’ll cover more examples — from areas that might interest you — so you’re able to use this mental exercise in your life.
How First-Principles Help You Learn Faster
By mastering rocket science, coding, and renewable energy, Elon Musk seems superhuman. Yet, time and again, he explains his secret: it’s all thanks to FP. Carefully read what he says in a Reddit AMA.
“It is important to view knowledge as a tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles (the trunk and big branches) before you get into the details (leaves and small branches) or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”
To learn anything better, use FP to pinpoint the trunk and the big branches of the topic you want to master. Ask yourself:
- “What are the fundamental rules and laws that make this subject?”
- “What are the details or trivials I can skip or leave for later?”
By mastering the fundamentals of any topic, you are able to understand the details and implementations much better.
How to Use First Principles to Fix Your Business
A business often sells a product or a service. Common problems you’ll face as an entrepreneur are:
- How to build a great product?
- How to convince people to buy it?
- How to boost revenues?
FP helps you break your company’s troubles to their fundamental truths.
- First-principles to build a great product.Fact #1: Solve a specific problem.Fact #2: Make it affordable.Fact #3: Make it easy to use.- First-principles to boost profits.Fact #1: Sales exceed all expenses.Fact #2: Demand is fast growing.
Using FP, you get a better picture of the pros and cons your business currently has. If your product or service doesn’t meet the principles you pulled, you’ll know what and where to improve.
How to Use First Principles to Advance Your Career
People looking for jobs often jump on the first offer they get. Sadly, this strategy hardly leads to the best career choice. Use FP to know the facts of what you truly value in a career.
- First-principles to land your dream job.Fact #1: I value the company’s culture.Fact #2: I value autonomy and growth.Fact #3: I value flexible working hours.Fact #4: I value roles that impact people’s lives.
Once you do that, you’ll have a super clear profile of your ideal company and job. Only then you can filter opportunities based on your fundamental facts and criteria.
“When arguing from first principles, you’re deliberately starting from scratch. You avoid the trap of conventional wisdom and gain a deeper understanding of the subject.”
— Gabriel Weinberg
Most people think by analogy or what’s known as herd mentality:
- “I choose this college because my best friend is going there.”
- “I use this solution because that’s what my colleague and boss do.”
While this way of thinking comes easy to us, using analogy limits creativity.
That’s why you should build a habit of thinking from FP. By breaking your problems to their fundamental truths, you’ll uncover creative ways that most people never think of.
