First Principles

Alright, let’s talk about first principles. It’s a concept that gets thrown around a lot, but my goal here is to make sure you actually get it—and can use it when you need to. The idea behind first principle thinking is simple: it’s about working a problem backwards, breaking it down to its core, and starting from scratch. Think of it as reverse-engineering things. You strip everything down to the basics—what Aristotle called “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Once you’ve got that foundation, you can build real solutions without being weighed down by assumptions or what “everyone knows.”

So, What’s a First Principle?

A first principle is the most basic part of something. It’s the thing you can’t break down any further. Aristotle nailed it with his definition: “the first basis from which a thing is known.”

Let me give you an example. Say you’re working with an essay. An essay is made up of paragraphs, right? Those paragraphs are made of sentences, which are built from words, and words are just a collection of letters. Letters are the most basic building block here. You can’t break a letter down—it’s the fundamental piece. Once you get that, the rest is just a matter of how those letters get arranged.

How First Principle Thinking Works

This way of thinking is about starting with what you know for sure and building from there—no assumptions, no shortcuts. Scientists and philosophers use it all the time because it forces them to challenge everything, including their own biases.

But first principle thinking isn’t just for intellectuals in labs or libraries. Think of a kid constantly asking, “Why?”—they’re not trying to be annoying; they just don’t take things at face value. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to share? That endless stream of questions is the kid’s way of figuring out how things really work.

As adults, we lose a bit of that curiosity and start running on autopilot, assuming we already know how things are. First principle thinking is about reclaiming that curiosity—resetting to zero, questioning everything, and working with what’s true, not what’s convenient.

Descartes and the Whole “Cogito Ergo Sum” Thing

Let’s go back a bit—this way of thinking isn’t new. René Descartes used it back in the 1600s in his Meditations. The guy took scepticism to another level. He doubted everything—the existence of the world around him, his body, other people—you name it. The only thing he couldn’t doubt was that he was thinking about all these doubts. From there, he figured: if I’m thinking, I must exist. That’s where his famous line “I think, therefore I am” comes from.

This was Descartes’ first principle. He cleared away everything uncertain and rebuilt his understanding from that one solid truth. That’s the whole point of first principle thinking—tearing things down to the essentials, then rebuilding on a rock-solid foundation.

First Principle Thinking in the Real World

Now, let’s bring this into the modern world. Elon Musk is big on this way of thinking. One of the best examples is how he tackled the cost of Tesla’s batteries.

Most people just accepted that batteries were expensive—$600 per kilowatt hour, and that’s how it’s always been. But Musk didn’t settle for that. He asked, “What are these batteries actually made of?” and “What’s the market value of those materials?”

Turns out, batteries are made of cobalt, nickel, carbon, aluminium, polymers, and a metal casing. If you bought those materials separately, the cost drops to about $80 per kilowatt hour. See how that works? By ignoring assumptions and breaking the problem down to its raw components, Musk found a way to make batteries cheaper—and built an entire business around it.

Think of Knowledge Like a Tree

Musk once said that knowledge is like a tree. You’ve got the trunk and main branches—those are your fundamental principles. Then you’ve got smaller branches and leaves—those are the details. The problem is, if you don’t understand the trunk and the bigger branches, the details don’t have anything to hold on to.

Let me take that tree analogy a step further. Imagine you’re an apple farmer, and your apples aren’t turning out great. Most people would try to figure out what’s wrong with the apples themselves. But a first principle thinker? They’d start with the soil, then move to the roots, the trunk, and finally the branches where the apples grow. You need to understand the whole system from the bottom up if you want to improve the fruit.

That’s what first principle thinking is—getting to the root of things, so you can fix them properly instead of slapping on Band-Aid solutions.

Bringing It All Together

Here’s the thing: first principle thinking isn’t some new concept, but it’s powerful. It’s about solving problems by questioning everything. If you strip things down to the basics and rebuild from what you know for sure, you’ll end up with better, more original solutions.

The key is to keep asking, “Why?”—just like a curious kid. Don’t take anything as a given. Keep breaking things down until you reach the core truth. Once you’ve got that, you can build your solution from the ground up—and make sure it actually holds.

First Principles

Alright, let’s talk about first principles. It’s a concept that gets thrown around a lot, but my goal here is to make sure you actually get it—and can use it when you need to. The idea behind first principle thinking is simple: it’s about working a problem backwards, breaking it down to its core, and starting from scratch. Think of it as reverse-engineering things. You strip everything down to the basics—what Aristotle called “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Once you’ve got that foundation, you can build real solutions without being weighed down by assumptions or what “everyone knows.”

So, What’s a First Principle?

A first principle is the most basic part of something. It’s the thing you can’t break down any further. Aristotle nailed it with his definition: “the first basis from which a thing is known.”

Let me give you an example. Say you’re working with an essay. An essay is made up of paragraphs, right? Those paragraphs are made of sentences, which are built from words, and words are just a collection of letters. Letters are the most basic building block here. You can’t break a letter down—it’s the fundamental piece. Once you get that, the rest is just a matter of how those letters get arranged.

How First Principle Thinking Works

This way of thinking is about starting with what you know for sure and building from there—no assumptions, no shortcuts. Scientists and philosophers use it all the time because it forces them to challenge everything, including their own biases.

But first principle thinking isn’t just for intellectuals in labs or libraries. Think of a kid constantly asking, “Why?”—they’re not trying to be annoying; they just don’t take things at face value. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to share? That endless stream of questions is the kid’s way of figuring out how things really work.

As adults, we lose a bit of that curiosity and start running on autopilot, assuming we already know how things are. First principle thinking is about reclaiming that curiosity—resetting to zero, questioning everything, and working with what’s true, not what’s convenient.

Descartes and the Whole “Cogito Ergo Sum” Thing

Let’s go back a bit—this way of thinking isn’t new. René Descartes used it back in the 1600s in his Meditations. The guy took scepticism to another level. He doubted everything—the existence of the world around him, his body, other people—you name it. The only thing he couldn’t doubt was that he was thinking about all these doubts. From there, he figured: if I’m thinking, I must exist. That’s where his famous line “I think, therefore I am” comes from.

This was Descartes’ first principle. He cleared away everything uncertain and rebuilt his understanding from that one solid truth. That’s the whole point of first principle thinking—tearing things down to the essentials, then rebuilding on a rock-solid foundation.

First Principle Thinking in the Real World

Now, let’s bring this into the modern world. Elon Musk is big on this way of thinking. One of the best examples is how he tackled the cost of Tesla’s batteries.

Most people just accepted that batteries were expensive—$600 per kilowatt hour, and that’s how it’s always been. But Musk didn’t settle for that. He asked, “What are these batteries actually made of?” and “What’s the market value of those materials?”

Turns out, batteries are made of cobalt, nickel, carbon, aluminium, polymers, and a metal casing. If you bought those materials separately, the cost drops to about $80 per kilowatt hour. See how that works? By ignoring assumptions and breaking the problem down to its raw components, Musk found a way to make batteries cheaper—and built an entire business around it.

Think of Knowledge Like a Tree

Musk once said that knowledge is like a tree. You’ve got the trunk and main branches—those are your fundamental principles. Then you’ve got smaller branches and leaves—those are the details. The problem is, if you don’t understand the trunk and the bigger branches, the details don’t have anything to hold on to.

Let me take that tree analogy a step further. Imagine you’re an apple farmer, and your apples aren’t turning out great. Most people would try to figure out what’s wrong with the apples themselves. But a first principle thinker? They’d start with the soil, then move to the roots, the trunk, and finally the branches where the apples grow. You need to understand the whole system from the bottom up if you want to improve the fruit.

That’s what first principle thinking is—getting to the root of things, so you can fix them properly instead of slapping on Band-Aid solutions.

Bringing It All Together

Here’s the thing: first principle thinking isn’t some new concept, but it’s powerful. It’s about solving problems by questioning everything. If you strip things down to the basics and rebuild from what you know for sure, you’ll end up with better, more original solutions.

The key is to keep asking, “Why?”—just like a curious kid. Don’t take anything as a given. Keep breaking things down until you reach the core truth. Once you’ve got that, you can build your solution from the ground up—and make sure it actually holds.

First Principles

Alright, let’s talk about first principles. It’s a concept that gets thrown around a lot, but my goal here is to make sure you actually get it—and can use it when you need to. The idea behind first principle thinking is simple: it’s about working a problem backwards, breaking it down to its core, and starting from scratch. Think of it as reverse-engineering things. You strip everything down to the basics—what Aristotle called “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Once you’ve got that foundation, you can build real solutions without being weighed down by assumptions or what “everyone knows.”

So, What’s a First Principle?

A first principle is the most basic part of something. It’s the thing you can’t break down any further. Aristotle nailed it with his definition: “the first basis from which a thing is known.”

Let me give you an example. Say you’re working with an essay. An essay is made up of paragraphs, right? Those paragraphs are made of sentences, which are built from words, and words are just a collection of letters. Letters are the most basic building block here. You can’t break a letter down—it’s the fundamental piece. Once you get that, the rest is just a matter of how those letters get arranged.

How First Principle Thinking Works

This way of thinking is about starting with what you know for sure and building from there—no assumptions, no shortcuts. Scientists and philosophers use it all the time because it forces them to challenge everything, including their own biases.

But first principle thinking isn’t just for intellectuals in labs or libraries. Think of a kid constantly asking, “Why?”—they’re not trying to be annoying; they just don’t take things at face value. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to share? That endless stream of questions is the kid’s way of figuring out how things really work.

As adults, we lose a bit of that curiosity and start running on autopilot, assuming we already know how things are. First principle thinking is about reclaiming that curiosity—resetting to zero, questioning everything, and working with what’s true, not what’s convenient.

Descartes and the Whole “Cogito Ergo Sum” Thing

Let’s go back a bit—this way of thinking isn’t new. René Descartes used it back in the 1600s in his Meditations. The guy took scepticism to another level. He doubted everything—the existence of the world around him, his body, other people—you name it. The only thing he couldn’t doubt was that he was thinking about all these doubts. From there, he figured: if I’m thinking, I must exist. That’s where his famous line “I think, therefore I am” comes from.

This was Descartes’ first principle. He cleared away everything uncertain and rebuilt his understanding from that one solid truth. That’s the whole point of first principle thinking—tearing things down to the essentials, then rebuilding on a rock-solid foundation.

First Principle Thinking in the Real World

Now, let’s bring this into the modern world. Elon Musk is big on this way of thinking. One of the best examples is how he tackled the cost of Tesla’s batteries.

Most people just accepted that batteries were expensive—$600 per kilowatt hour, and that’s how it’s always been. But Musk didn’t settle for that. He asked, “What are these batteries actually made of?” and “What’s the market value of those materials?”

Turns out, batteries are made of cobalt, nickel, carbon, aluminium, polymers, and a metal casing. If you bought those materials separately, the cost drops to about $80 per kilowatt hour. See how that works? By ignoring assumptions and breaking the problem down to its raw components, Musk found a way to make batteries cheaper—and built an entire business around it.

Think of Knowledge Like a Tree

Musk once said that knowledge is like a tree. You’ve got the trunk and main branches—those are your fundamental principles. Then you’ve got smaller branches and leaves—those are the details. The problem is, if you don’t understand the trunk and the bigger branches, the details don’t have anything to hold on to.

Let me take that tree analogy a step further. Imagine you’re an apple farmer, and your apples aren’t turning out great. Most people would try to figure out what’s wrong with the apples themselves. But a first principle thinker? They’d start with the soil, then move to the roots, the trunk, and finally the branches where the apples grow. You need to understand the whole system from the bottom up if you want to improve the fruit.

That’s what first principle thinking is—getting to the root of things, so you can fix them properly instead of slapping on Band-Aid solutions.

Bringing It All Together

Here’s the thing: first principle thinking isn’t some new concept, but it’s powerful. It’s about solving problems by questioning everything. If you strip things down to the basics and rebuild from what you know for sure, you’ll end up with better, more original solutions.

The key is to keep asking, “Why?”—just like a curious kid. Don’t take anything as a given. Keep breaking things down until you reach the core truth. Once you’ve got that, you can build your solution from the ground up—and make sure it actually holds.

First Principles

Alright, let’s talk about first principles. It’s a concept that gets thrown around a lot, but my goal here is to make sure you actually get it—and can use it when you need to. The idea behind first principle thinking is simple: it’s about working a problem backwards, breaking it down to its core, and starting from scratch. Think of it as reverse-engineering things. You strip everything down to the basics—what Aristotle called “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Once you’ve got that foundation, you can build real solutions without being weighed down by assumptions or what “everyone knows.”

So, What’s a First Principle?

A first principle is the most basic part of something. It’s the thing you can’t break down any further. Aristotle nailed it with his definition: “the first basis from which a thing is known.”

Let me give you an example. Say you’re working with an essay. An essay is made up of paragraphs, right? Those paragraphs are made of sentences, which are built from words, and words are just a collection of letters. Letters are the most basic building block here. You can’t break a letter down—it’s the fundamental piece. Once you get that, the rest is just a matter of how those letters get arranged.

How First Principle Thinking Works

This way of thinking is about starting with what you know for sure and building from there—no assumptions, no shortcuts. Scientists and philosophers use it all the time because it forces them to challenge everything, including their own biases.

But first principle thinking isn’t just for intellectuals in labs or libraries. Think of a kid constantly asking, “Why?”—they’re not trying to be annoying; they just don’t take things at face value. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to share? That endless stream of questions is the kid’s way of figuring out how things really work.

As adults, we lose a bit of that curiosity and start running on autopilot, assuming we already know how things are. First principle thinking is about reclaiming that curiosity—resetting to zero, questioning everything, and working with what’s true, not what’s convenient.

Descartes and the Whole “Cogito Ergo Sum” Thing

Let’s go back a bit—this way of thinking isn’t new. René Descartes used it back in the 1600s in his Meditations. The guy took scepticism to another level. He doubted everything—the existence of the world around him, his body, other people—you name it. The only thing he couldn’t doubt was that he was thinking about all these doubts. From there, he figured: if I’m thinking, I must exist. That’s where his famous line “I think, therefore I am” comes from.

This was Descartes’ first principle. He cleared away everything uncertain and rebuilt his understanding from that one solid truth. That’s the whole point of first principle thinking—tearing things down to the essentials, then rebuilding on a rock-solid foundation.

First Principle Thinking in the Real World

Now, let’s bring this into the modern world. Elon Musk is big on this way of thinking. One of the best examples is how he tackled the cost of Tesla’s batteries.

Most people just accepted that batteries were expensive—$600 per kilowatt hour, and that’s how it’s always been. But Musk didn’t settle for that. He asked, “What are these batteries actually made of?” and “What’s the market value of those materials?”

Turns out, batteries are made of cobalt, nickel, carbon, aluminium, polymers, and a metal casing. If you bought those materials separately, the cost drops to about $80 per kilowatt hour. See how that works? By ignoring assumptions and breaking the problem down to its raw components, Musk found a way to make batteries cheaper—and built an entire business around it.

Think of Knowledge Like a Tree

Musk once said that knowledge is like a tree. You’ve got the trunk and main branches—those are your fundamental principles. Then you’ve got smaller branches and leaves—those are the details. The problem is, if you don’t understand the trunk and the bigger branches, the details don’t have anything to hold on to.

Let me take that tree analogy a step further. Imagine you’re an apple farmer, and your apples aren’t turning out great. Most people would try to figure out what’s wrong with the apples themselves. But a first principle thinker? They’d start with the soil, then move to the roots, the trunk, and finally the branches where the apples grow. You need to understand the whole system from the bottom up if you want to improve the fruit.

That’s what first principle thinking is—getting to the root of things, so you can fix them properly instead of slapping on Band-Aid solutions.

Bringing It All Together

Here’s the thing: first principle thinking isn’t some new concept, but it’s powerful. It’s about solving problems by questioning everything. If you strip things down to the basics and rebuild from what you know for sure, you’ll end up with better, more original solutions.

The key is to keep asking, “Why?”—just like a curious kid. Don’t take anything as a given. Keep breaking things down until you reach the core truth. Once you’ve got that, you can build your solution from the ground up—and make sure it actually holds.

First Principles

Alright, let’s talk about first principles. It’s a concept that gets thrown around a lot, but my goal here is to make sure you actually get it—and can use it when you need to. The idea behind first principle thinking is simple: it’s about working a problem backwards, breaking it down to its core, and starting from scratch. Think of it as reverse-engineering things. You strip everything down to the basics—what Aristotle called “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Once you’ve got that foundation, you can build real solutions without being weighed down by assumptions or what “everyone knows.”

So, What’s a First Principle?

A first principle is the most basic part of something. It’s the thing you can’t break down any further. Aristotle nailed it with his definition: “the first basis from which a thing is known.”

Let me give you an example. Say you’re working with an essay. An essay is made up of paragraphs, right? Those paragraphs are made of sentences, which are built from words, and words are just a collection of letters. Letters are the most basic building block here. You can’t break a letter down—it’s the fundamental piece. Once you get that, the rest is just a matter of how those letters get arranged.

How First Principle Thinking Works

This way of thinking is about starting with what you know for sure and building from there—no assumptions, no shortcuts. Scientists and philosophers use it all the time because it forces them to challenge everything, including their own biases.

But first principle thinking isn’t just for intellectuals in labs or libraries. Think of a kid constantly asking, “Why?”—they’re not trying to be annoying; they just don’t take things at face value. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to share? That endless stream of questions is the kid’s way of figuring out how things really work.

As adults, we lose a bit of that curiosity and start running on autopilot, assuming we already know how things are. First principle thinking is about reclaiming that curiosity—resetting to zero, questioning everything, and working with what’s true, not what’s convenient.

Descartes and the Whole “Cogito Ergo Sum” Thing

Let’s go back a bit—this way of thinking isn’t new. René Descartes used it back in the 1600s in his Meditations. The guy took scepticism to another level. He doubted everything—the existence of the world around him, his body, other people—you name it. The only thing he couldn’t doubt was that he was thinking about all these doubts. From there, he figured: if I’m thinking, I must exist. That’s where his famous line “I think, therefore I am” comes from.

This was Descartes’ first principle. He cleared away everything uncertain and rebuilt his understanding from that one solid truth. That’s the whole point of first principle thinking—tearing things down to the essentials, then rebuilding on a rock-solid foundation.

First Principle Thinking in the Real World

Now, let’s bring this into the modern world. Elon Musk is big on this way of thinking. One of the best examples is how he tackled the cost of Tesla’s batteries.

Most people just accepted that batteries were expensive—$600 per kilowatt hour, and that’s how it’s always been. But Musk didn’t settle for that. He asked, “What are these batteries actually made of?” and “What’s the market value of those materials?”

Turns out, batteries are made of cobalt, nickel, carbon, aluminium, polymers, and a metal casing. If you bought those materials separately, the cost drops to about $80 per kilowatt hour. See how that works? By ignoring assumptions and breaking the problem down to its raw components, Musk found a way to make batteries cheaper—and built an entire business around it.

Think of Knowledge Like a Tree

Musk once said that knowledge is like a tree. You’ve got the trunk and main branches—those are your fundamental principles. Then you’ve got smaller branches and leaves—those are the details. The problem is, if you don’t understand the trunk and the bigger branches, the details don’t have anything to hold on to.

Let me take that tree analogy a step further. Imagine you’re an apple farmer, and your apples aren’t turning out great. Most people would try to figure out what’s wrong with the apples themselves. But a first principle thinker? They’d start with the soil, then move to the roots, the trunk, and finally the branches where the apples grow. You need to understand the whole system from the bottom up if you want to improve the fruit.

That’s what first principle thinking is—getting to the root of things, so you can fix them properly instead of slapping on Band-Aid solutions.

Bringing It All Together

Here’s the thing: first principle thinking isn’t some new concept, but it’s powerful. It’s about solving problems by questioning everything. If you strip things down to the basics and rebuild from what you know for sure, you’ll end up with better, more original solutions.

The key is to keep asking, “Why?”—just like a curious kid. Don’t take anything as a given. Keep breaking things down until you reach the core truth. Once you’ve got that, you can build your solution from the ground up—and make sure it actually holds.