Thinking In First Principles
How to use simple thinking to solve complex problems.
Sometimes its easier than we think.
We Just Need The Right Ideas
I naturally like to make things more complicated than I have to because I think I solving something. I’m only making it worse.
People have a tendency to think of everything in a complex way.
The Challenge Of Assumptions
If we assume a problem need complex thinking because its complex, than the problem will just become harder to solve as it becomes more complicated.
Now if we dismiss our assumptions of things needing to be hard, because its a hard problem, this gives us the space to view things more simply.
Most complex problems are like a lock. Next to impossible to unlock unless you are skilled in lock picking.
Thinking in first principles allows anyone to make a key that unlocks any complex problems.
Elon Musk’s space X involves no easy takes of getting an entire rocket in the air. Elon knows that getting the rocket in the air is no easy task without the proper foundational assumptions in place.
Nuts And Bolts Literally
Rocket Fuel (Right Blend)
Heavy Rocket (So Lots of Thrust)
What could go wrong versus what could go right.
These are just a few examples of how Elon thinks. If Elon was stuck in the weeds of complex logic and calculations, the most important parts of getting the rocket in the air could go over his head.
Thinking In Micro and Macro Detail
Many successful entrepreneurs have the ability to think in a overly detailed and broad manner.
The trade offs to thinking in one over the other is that something is bound to go over your head.
Thinking Like Writing an Essay.
Thinking in macro detail is like writing a thesis for a long English or research paper.
No paper can be written without the underlying claim.
But just a claim alone is baseless, just like a rocket needing a platform. All the parts and construction of the rocket can be intact, but nothing can function without a solid platform.
Taking Powerful Perspectives
I some ways thinking in terms of first principles allows someone to see the underlying challenges to be solved within a problem.
If it cant be broken down in this manner, a complex problem begins to seem unsolvable as it remains complex.
Just like flying a rocket sounds like a monumental task, it will remain an impossible task without the foundations of a rocket.
The Blinding Nature of a Superior Intellect
Over confidence can come back to bite us in the butt if we don’t have humility.
Humility solves problems because it is the recognition of what we don’t know.
Knowing what we don’t know isn’t rocket science. Its wisdom.
The fuel for thinking in first principles is wisdom.
Multivariable calculus does nothing for rocket science without having a clear idea of the problem being solved.
Skill is pointless without effective application.
Knowing what we don’t know is thinking in first principles.
Its about as basic as it gets.
Thinking simply in order to think hard.
But few of us do it as were stuck in the weeds of a problem rather than trying to stand up tall to see the horizon in front of us.
Anything that’s hard can be simple, and anything that’s simple can be hard. It ultimately depends on the perspective we choose to take rather than how “smart” we are.
Choose wisely.