First principles thinking is the act of reducing something down to the most basic parts that you know are true, and using that as your foundation for building up from there.
It involves digging deeper and deeper until you are left with only the foundation truth of a situation.
Aristotle described a first principle as:
"...the first basis from which a thing is known."
First principles thinking removes all assumptions and asks:
"What are we absolutely sure is true, what has been proven?"
In practical terms, it does not mean reducing everything the atomic level, most benefits can be derived by thinking several levels deeper than most people.
First principles thinking means testing assumptions, taking things apart and reconstructing
them so that we can cut through the dogma, the group think, and see
things as they are and see what is possible.
Ultimately, when you think it through, anything that is not a law of nature is a belief, a concept based on assumptions. We live in a world based on beliefs and assumptions. For example, we believe that the dollar, the pound, the euro or indeed any currency has value.
But these pieces of metal and paper, these numbers on a screen have no intrinsic value. The value is solely in the shared belief that these things have value.
As Elon Musk explains in the
following video clip, the normal way we conduct our lives is that we
reason by analogy, we reason by comparison with something else that
appears similar, and we do this because it's easier, its less mental
effort than first principles thinking. Reasoning by analogy is a useful and practical shortcut or heuristic, often referred to as a rule of thumb. Frequently, there is neither the time nor the need to engage with first principles thinking, however it is useful, and often essential, when dealing with complexity or trying to solve a problem.
# Frame The Problem Clearly The most important part of solving your problem is defining it: # Socratic Questioning Socratic questioning can be used to draw out first principles
in a systematic manner via rigorous analysis. The late Dr. Richard Paul founder of The Foundation For Critical Thinking, has classified Socratic questions into 6 basic types:
[1] Questions for clarification Why do I think this? What exactly do I think? [2] Questions that probe assumptions How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite?
[3] Questions that probe reasons and evidence How can I back this up? What are the sources? [4] Questions about viewpoints and perspectives What might others think? How do I know I am correct? [5] Questions that probe implications and consequences What if I am wrong? What are the consequences if I am? [6] Questions about the question Why did I think that? Was I
correct? What conclusions can I draw from the reasoning process? # The Power Of 5 Whys?
A powerful technique for digging deep into a problem to find the root cause is to ask the question Why? five times. This technique was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries. This technique is very simple: You just repeat the question “why?”
after each answer 5 times. The purpose of this is to move beyond
the first explanation, which is often just a byproduct of the problem, and to drill down until you find the ultimate
root cause of the problem.How Does First Principles Thinking Differ From Conventional Thinking?
How Can You Establish First Principles?
====================================================
=====================================================
=====================================================
# Optimize The Function & Ignore The Form
Because of our default tendency for thinking by analogy we focus on form.
We
project the current form forward rather than projecting the function
and thus run into the common roadblock to first principles thinking.
When most people envision the future, they project the current form forward rather than projecting the function forward and abandoning the form.
Old conventions, the ideas you inherit, are presented in forms
and are usually accepted without question and thus form a boundary to creative thinking.
Continuous improvement tends to occur within the boundary set by the original vision.
First principles thinking requires you to drop your adherence to prior forms and focus instead on the function.
Key Questions:
Return to: How To Think
Just Because You Have A Spectacular Failure Doesn’t Mean The Game Is Over. The thought that you could fail can really slow you down. But the problem is not the failure, the problem is your relationshi…
Are You Lost In Transition? To be in an alien North African city, late in the evening, in the dark, completely lost in transition from the main market square back to the obscure location of our Riad…
Do You Believe What You See Or Do You See What You Believe? Like the characters in "The Matrix" we are fooled by the illusion that what we see is how things really are. Why? Because this is the mind's…
What Impact Will You Leave In The Lives Of Others? If you knew you were going to die tonight and you were given a few minutes to reflect before that happened, what would you say was the meaning of yo…
If You Want Others To Be Happy, Practice Compassion. If You Want To Be Happy, Practice Compassion. Compassion is derived from the Latin words "com pati" meaning to suffer with. It has been defined as…
The Power Of Expectation Of An Outcome Regardless Of The Lack Of Any Substance To That Expectation. Traditionally, the placebo effect occurs when false, or dummy, treatments of inert substances [that…
This Is What Will Happen After You Take It.
"This is your last chance," rebel leader Morpheus tells Neo, holding a coloured pill in each hand. “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in y…
This Has To Be One Of The Best Ways For Living The Best Life You Can Possibly Live. An online search on life hacks will invariably provide you with multiple links to ways of increasing your productivi…
The Blessing And The Curse Of Impermanence. There is a story of a king who sought wisdom. Eventually he heard of a man living in a remote part of the kingdom who had a reputation for great wisdom. The…
The Stories That We Tell Ourselves Are A Matter Of Choice. The stories we tell ourselves form the backcloth and the tapestry of our lives. These narratives shape and define our sense of self and how a…
Trust Is A Choice And It Creates Your Reality. Nothing in life is permanent and nothing lasts forever. Every relationship ends in tears. Somebody leaves or somebody dies. This is how things are. This…
Finding This Hidden Value Is The Key To A Huge Upside. Most of us spend our lives working to linear rules where there is an equal relationship between effort and result. Work hard you get a result. Wo…
How To Be There When Preparation Meets Opportunity. The growth mindset holds the core belief that your intelligence and personality is something you can develop and that you can expand and grow. The p…
If you can't think of the right thing to say, say nothing.
The concepts we employ, the categorizations we apply and the words we choose and use to articulate a direct experience put us in a double bi…
To Believe Or Not To Believe - That Is The Question. Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its beliefs and dogmas. The religious and cultural beliefs that sanction and allow or impose…
How To Stay Far From The Madding Crowd. Herd mentality describes how we make decisions based on what everyone else is thinking and doing. It is also known as a mob or crowd mentality. We follow the he…
We Suffer Every Time We Believe A Thought That Argues With What Is. When your mind is perfectly clear, what is, is what you want. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try…
Slack Is The Capacity To Effect Change And The Resource To Deal With The Unexpected. Many organizations are obsessed with efficiency and try to ensure that every resource is fully utilized to its full…
Less and less do you need to force things, until you arrive at non-action. We are brought up to believe that we get what we want in life as a result of what we do, by the actions that we take, that ha…
Is It Helping You Or Hindering You? Your point of focus is the central point of your attention. Your point of focus is a binary choice and the result of that choice is critical to your happiness, your…
To accomplish any success in life, you must identify accurately what it is that you hunger for, thirst for and long for. The purpose of this article is to look at the foundation of the secret for succ…
Discover The Joy Of A Quiet Mind Can you stop thinking? According to Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno the art of not thinking about anything is not easy to achieve. Even practising monks find it dif…
What Is Holding You Back From Pursuing Your Dreams? Your self confidence is based on ability. Your self confidence is all about your level of trust, faith and belief in your abilities [your power] and…
Learning how to overcome fear and perform powerfully is a skill that we all need to acquire as fear of failure affects most of us at some point in our lives. Whilst it is natural to feel a level of fe…
You are creating hell on earth when you are too subsumed within your underlying and deeply embedded negative energetic states. To counter your dissatisfactions and misery you initially go unconscious…
How you mentally characterize a situation has a profound impact on how you respond to it emotionally. There is a direct causal link between how you think about a situation, the words you use to articu…
What good is a universe without somebody around to look at it? What Conclusions Can We Draw About Living In A Participatory Universe? The inescapable conclusion is that the world and the universe (wit…
The journey home to the energy of life does not consist in arriving at a new destination it is a coming home to one’s self. [1] How are you feeling, what is your dominant emotion right now? [2] Where…
You have to be willing to suffer today in order to reap enormous rewards tomorrow. The long game is so hard to play because it involves taking a series of very small steps, that people rarely see, per…
How To Build Self Esteem In my early life and until my early twenties I suffered from a deep inferiority complex and low self esteem. Forty years later and, said in sincerity and with humility, I have…