What it means to think from first principles
The very first time I heard the term ‘first principles’ being actively used, it was in an Elon Musk interview video (quick side-note — I am a huge Elon Musk stan, I just thought I’d put that out there for no reason whatsoever). He had just been asked by the interviewer how he approaches problem-solving and in typical Elon Musk manner he responded by saying something along the lines of “Thinking from first principles is usually a great place to start”
Now like I earlier mentioned, I am big on Elon Musk so that casual statement from him prompted me to do a deep delve into what thinking from first principles means and upon digging, I discovered that it is an immensely valuable mental model that has often been prioritized by the really solid thinkers from Aristotle to Richard Feynman and even more interesting it is a mental model we are all equipped with from birth but one we usually discard in our bid to fit in within society.
If you have ever hung around children for an extended period of time, I am willing to bet that in a couple of minutes, you got frustrated with the never-ending questions. In my experience, they never stop asking why it’s cute at first but pretty soon you just want to lock them in some cupboard to get a breather from the never-ending questions. More than anyone else, children embody the very concept of what it means to think from first principles, that’s till society puts an end to it.
Because you see, at its very basic, to think from first principles is to understand the very basic rules that govern a system, it is you trying to get why things are the way they are.
Which is what children are always leading to with their stream of questions — Why are things the way they are? What are the basic rules that govern the world as we know it? It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it? So why is it such a big deal?
Here is why, In our navigation of life, we often see the world through a lens of assumptions and biases shaped by our experiences and environment that usually reflects what we expect to see back to us which creates a loop within which true knowledge is often missing and clarity of understanding is absent.
To think from first principles is to step outside the loop, ask questions, and examine things so critically that you understand the very basic rules on which a system is operating.
“I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”
— Richard Feynman
The Cook & The Chef.
One of my favorite ways to explain first principles thinking is an example shared by Tim Urban;
A cook creates a dish/meal according to an already existing recipe,s/he follows instructions already set down, doesn’t necessarily bother to question why things are the way they are, why it has to precisely be a 1/2 spoon of nutmeg, they just follow the rules, but what happens on the day they can’t find their recipe book and forget how things are supposed to go, which is supposed to follow which, then they are in a hot bowl of soup.
But a chef on the other hand creates recipes, they understand why things are exactly the way they are, they don’t have to depend on a recipe book because they know exactly what the rules are.
Reasoning from first principles gives you a huge advantage both professionally and personally because, upon conscious examination of your environment, you will find that most tightly held assumptions and supposedly immutable beliefs are just echoes of what happens to be the generally accepted line of thinking largely so because people are hesitant to question WHY?
The bane of thinking from first principles is to just accept things the way they are because it is generally accepted. That is not your concern in the least, your concern is to ask why so and so is the way it is and to test for flaws in a generally accepted truth.
To think from first principles is to question the status quo, it is a willingness to never stop asking why.
