Thinking in 'First Principle'​ according to Elon Musk

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‘First Principle Ideation’ is a method of inquiry that seeks to uncover novel solutions to existing problems by breaking them down to their most fundamental parts. The term comes from an ancient philosophy called “first principles.”

According to ancient philosophy, the term was coined almost 2,300 years ago by Greek Philosopher, Aristotle. He proposed that by understanding a subject's fundamental principles, those “things better known and clearer to us.”

First Principle is an important first step for evaluating systems — whether in philosophy, personal life, business.

There’s no bigger proponent of this idea than Elon Musk. He believes that,

“It’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. So the normal way we conduct our lives is, we reason by analogy. We are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing… with slight iterations on a theme. And it’s … mentally easier to reason by analogy rather than from first principles. First principles is kind of a physics way of looking at the world, and what that really means is, you … boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, “okay, what are we sure is true?”
Musk admits that thinking in first principles "takes a lot more mental energy," but can produce groundbreaking results.

“It is important to view knowledge as sort of semantic tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.” - Elon Musk
Defining the Problem
Identifying a problem isn’t as easy as looking at something and saying, ‘it doesn’t work.’

A problem is a situation in which something important has happened but we don’t know why. Evaluation of the problem requires using the correct research methodology. Which research technique should you use? Some techniques create their own problems so it’s important to evaluate which is best given the circumstances.

To truly identify a problem you must first define bolivia telegram number the clear set of issues (or symptoms) that led to the problem -- like decreased sales, loss of market share, and decreased web traffic.

Problems are a result of individual symptoms.
Elon’s Problem:
“Somebody could say — and in fact people do — that battery packs are really expensive and that’s just the way they will always be because that’s the way they have been in the past. … Well, no, that’s pretty dumb… Because if you applied that reasoning to anything new, then you wouldn’t be able to ever get to that new thing…. you can’t say, … “oh, nobody wants a car because horses are great, and we’re used to them and they can eat grass and there’s lots of grass all over the place and … there’s no gasoline that people can buy….”
Deconstructing the Problem
This step is most like a ‘Situation Analysis.’ According to Wikipedia, a situation analysis refers to a collection of methods that managers use to analyze an organization's internal and external environment to understand the organization's capabilities, customers, and business environment.