Hello friends,
no way, not again, it’s our last article of the week already. How did this happen?
However, it has happened, I got a really good one for you. It goes off me watching a video where Elon Musk shares how first principles thinking works for him, where we reason through possible analogies which is mentally easier but it’s something that actually holds us back.
First principles thinking is thinking like a physician. Oh! Boy, physics, at least I was better at that than Mathematics in school. It really makes sense though, he says, “It boils down to the truth,” and then reason up from there.
What does this mean?
According to this theory, first principles thinking, let’s say you have an idea, whatever that idea is you feel good about but then you convince yourself or self-sabotage it by reasoning with something that is not really true. Like the example he uses in this video where he says, “People say that battery packs are always expensive”. Now with first principles thinking you would work harder mentally.
So, to apply the analogy or the self-sabotage to that new thing you want to create would mean you won’t ever get to it because you have this limiting belief already. For you to create something new you would need to apply new reasoning, by applying new reasoning it’s possible to get started on the new idea, and then to continuously build on that idea you reach your desired outcome, but you would continuously be challenged to use first principles thinking which I call think for yourself 100% without yours or someone else’s limiting beliefs.
Other people in history used first principle’s thinking, for example, Aristotle. The idea of first principles thinking come from seeing the idea you have, then splitting up the components of this idea, like the one Elon Musk uses in his example, i.e., batteries. Take the whole battery apart, see what it’s composed of, then go to the stock market, find out the value of it and then see how you can get each of these components for cheaper and then package them all in a form of a battery, and there you go, you will have a cheaper battery.
So, to say, a first principles thinker will want to know the complete understanding of it from the inception to the end and by doing so they gather multiple pieces of information about the ins and outs, organise it in an organised body of knowledge, whereas a conventional thinker, a thinker who is influenced by analogies, and other people’s ideas but their own will simply presume, be less informed, or even less prepared to do the work required from start to finish. So a conventional thinker would try to create the very item as a display without it being properly studied or tested whereas a first principles thinker would look beyond the requirements of it to succeed, to have no side effects if they believe they have found it, the environment it requires to work and carry out what it was meant to carry out, meaning all that it requires to perform the way they thought it to by all the facts.
First principles thinking is a form of thinking that allows the idea to become whole from breaking down the composition of the requirements so that each requirement can be seen as whole and true to form, something much bigger that is ultimately the full product of all these little whole and true components making it a whole, true and beautiful product. First principles thinking can be applied to almost anything that a person is creating, music, writing (me writing this), a product, a dish… you name it, and for Elon Musk… yes, you already know.
Let’s take a look at what I require to make this piece of writing stand out. So, what am I writing? I am writing an article and what would I require?
- Paragraphs
- Sentences
- Words
- Letters
Now that this is understood, to make this really brilliant I’d have to look at each component and improving it from the simplest to the more complex task. I’d say to improve this and to stand out I’d need my genius, Me! See that is the extra piece that is required to improve what I am creating here. Now maybe if Elon Musk was writing this article, he’d probably be more technical as he might even be writing to a certain type of audience, i.e., maybe a market interested in cars, technology, who knows and me being me, I’m writing for self-improvement and self-help. So, see Elon Musk will be known for his genius in this piece of work for the contribution he’s making to his audience and me to mine. Now he might not be a good writer but he certainly would know what he’s talking about. Now the words I’d choose are more particular to my style and the more I decide on what the outcome of this article should be or the action I am trying to influence you to consider or take if this benefits you will require me to write and improve my paragraphs, sentence choice, word choice and letters, well it depends what language I am writing in and whether I’m writing in American or British English. Fundamentally, the outcome should be amazing because every piece of the component has been examined, put together and improved.
With first principles thinking if you’re having a complex thought the only way to break it down into its components is to examine the fact, the true and full parts of its nature.
Now, this doesn’t end here, I’ve just about created an article, but with first principles thinking I could change the idea and move it along to a more improved idea, like perhaps create a short story, a novel, or an eBook, meaning the idea can grow into a more innovative thing, but only when you know each component in and out can you only know how to innovate or improve the idea or the actual “thing” you’ve created.
With first principles thinking it so thought through that you can then integrate various other ideas, technology, etc. to your finished product for improvement or something more advanced. The best part, so much work went into it that it will take someone quite a long time to try and copy it. With first principles thinking, once you know the entirety of the product you can then teach it to someone. The first principles thinker then becomes the professional at identifying the level of learning that someone is at when they transfer the knowledge over.
To have this content sink in even more, I’ve put down Elon Musk’s video below where he explains first principles thinking.
First principles method explained by Elon Musk
Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
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