During her podcast interview, Mili Ghosh, a cinematographer and photographer, alluded to the concept of First Principles Thinking as a way for her to understand Indian films and movies not for entertainment but for building her unique creative style in her work. Rather than taking things at face value, she started digging deep into the basic questions of how things are done to help her understand all the nuances of film making and visual storytelling.

If you missed Mili’s amazing interview you can still take a listen here.

We were so intrigued about this concept of First Principles Thinking that we wanted to explore this more throughly. Turns out, First Principles Thinking has been around for a long time – people like Aristotle and most recently, Elon Musk, subscribe to this way of thinking.

Simply put, First Principles Thinking or FPT is a way to get breakthrough ideas and help clarify difficult decisions in your life.

At its core, FPT advices us on striping down a complex problem into its fundamental issues and build solutions from that base. It forces us to let go of all past notions, ideas or even cultural concepts and look at the basic problem with an objective lens – without any preconceived notions. Most of us get through life by reasoning by analogy which essentially means copying what others say and do with only slight variations. If it is done before, why reinvent the wheel? Reasoning by analogy is building knowledge and solving problems based on prior assumptions, beliefs and widely held ‘best practices’ approved by majority of people.

But FPT advocates  the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you ‘know’ about a given problem or scenario   and then creating new knowledge and solutions from scratch. 

Essentially, first principles thinking will help you develop a unique worldview to innovate and solve difficult problems in a way that nobody else can even fathom. It helps you get to the baseline question before building up to the harder upstream questions

Here are 3 easy steps to apply FPT to any situation that is challenging and difficult to solve

#1 Identify and define your current assumptions

#2 Breakdown the problem into its fundamental issues

#3 Create new solutions from scratch that address the baseline issues

Here are some example from Mayo Oshin from his article that explains First Principles Thinking.

Assumption: “Growing my business will cost too much money” 

First principles thinking:

What do you need to grow a profitable business? Does it have to cost a lot of money to sell to new customers? How can you get new customers? Who has this access and how you can create a win-win deal?

Assumption: “I just can’t find enough time to workout and achieve my weight loss goals.”

First principles thinking:
What do you really need to reach your weight loss goal? I need to exercise more, preferably 5 days a week for an hour each time. Could you still lose weight exercising less frequently, if so how? Possibly, I could try 15 minute workouts, 3 days a week. These could be quick high intensity full body workouts that will speed up my fat loss in less time.

We loved this video by Martin on Elon Musk’s interpretation of First Principle Thinking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ezO97C0v8

First principles thinking encourages us to think differently.

Usually, when we’re faced with complex problems, we default to thinking like everybody else. First principles thinking is a powerful way to help break out of the herd mentality, think outside the box and innovate completely brand new solutions to familiar problems.

By identifying your current assumptions, breaking these down into their basic truths and creating solutions from scratch — you can uncover these ingenious solutions to complex problems and make unique contributions in any field.

Do you ascribe to the First Principles Thinking approach? We would love to hear from you and know your thoughts on this concept.

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