First Principles Thinking Flashcards
What is First principles thinking?
It’s a mental model that emphasizes the deconstruction of problems to their essential elements.
How many and which are the steps involved in the First principles thinking process?
Define your assumptions.
Reduce them to their first principles.
Reverse engineer solutions based only on the information you know to be verifiably true.
How does First Principles Thinking relate to assumptions and preconceptions?
It requires the absence of assumptions and preconceptions.
What does First principles thinking build up from?
It’s built upon only what we know to be empirically true.
What does Elon Musk mean when he mentions humans normally “reason from analogy” and how does that relate to this thinking method?
It’s the opposite of First Principles Thinking. It bases decisions on prior assumptions and “conventional wisdom”.
First Principles thinking example. Describe how this relates to losing weight.
1 - Assumptions: Give up food I love, diets are hard to stick to, workout 5 days a week for 1 h/day, etc.
2 - First principles: Create calorie deficit so the body uses fat as fuel, and maintain it for a sustained period of time. Any exercise is better than none.
3 - Build new solutions: You can achieve calorie deficit by eating the same foods you already do, just less of it or switching to lower calorie alternatives, adjust other meals but include cheat meals. Any HIIT workouts for 15 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week will give many benefits.
Albert Einstein on First Principles thinking: “If I had 1 hour to solve a problem, I’d spend __ minutes thinking about _____ and __ about _____.”
…“I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 about solutions.”
Which of these is not true of first principles thinking?
A - It confirms assumptions
B - It simplifies complex information
C - It reveals unexpected conclusions
A - It confirms assumptions
You identify and define your current assumptions but do not need to confirm them. You then move on to step 2: Break down the problem into its fundamental principles or truths.
