#7 Reasoning from first principles

Or how to solve complex problems

There is one mental model the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos use to solve complex problems. That mental model is reasoning from first principles.

Reasoning from first principles is to break down the idea into most basic components and then reassemble from the ground up. Most people think through analogies, but it's a lazy way of thinking about things. You need to break down the problem into most fundamental parts until it cannot be broken down any longer.

Thinking from first principles is the difference between a coach and a play stealer. A football coach creates plays for the team from the ground up using the rules of the game as first principles. Play stealer is a coach who is using other team's plays and maybe making some changes to it. It also differentiates cooks from chefs. Cooks can replicate a dish or perfectly follow a recipe, but a chef doesn't even need a recipe. A chef can invent a dish. For a cook, the recipe is the fundamental thing, for a chef, it's the understanding of flavors and combinations.

We learn not to question things from childhood when our parents tell us "Because i said so" when we are curious about things. Questioning things is fundamental factor of thinking from first principles.

Reasoning by analogies is an easy way for us think and explain things, but it limits our ability to solve complex problems. By reasoning from the first principles we can understand the fundamental constructs and solve complex problems.

I learned it from this article and this book.