THINKING FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES

By Matata Mercy

If you attended physics classes at school, then you must be familiar with the phenomenon called the first principles that is mostly applied in the study during the derivation of formulas that are used to solve different problems in physics.

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This principle simply means that you start reconstructing something from scratch until it is able to take shape and become what is actually required of it to be.

For example if you have a battery and you would like to see how to came to be or how to it was actually made, it simply means that you take out the materials that were used to make the battery and then you start tinkering with these materials one at a time until you are able to make a battery, without using any previously existing formula or manual to help you figure out to come up with it.

 One famous entreprenuer called Elon Musk who is known for building a company called Paypal and another company called Space X has said that he loves this idea of thinking from first principles when trying to solve problems in his entreprenuership journey.

According to Elon Musk, the first principles decision making strategy is where you are able to actually boil things down to the fundamental truths that do exist and then from there you can start reasoning properly instead of just doing things by analogy.

 Reasoning by analogy or doing things by analogy simply means that you are copying others and then putting in some slight variations which is actually one of the things that we often do throughout of lives most times.

Otherwise if you were to do it the first principles way, then it simply means that you would not be able to get through the day mentally.

 The term that we now refer to as first principles was first used by the Greek philosopher who is called Aristotle and it has now existed for about 2000 years.

He believed that the best way to be able to solve complex problems and also be able to understand a subject was to break it down into fundamental principles.

 It will take alot of effort to think from first principles but if you are actually trying to do something new, then first principles is actually the best way to think.

For example if batteries are expensive, then you first work on the fundamental truths which involves the materials that are used to make batteries, the building blocks.

Then you could figure out how to be able to combine those materials in a clever way to form the shape of a battery cell.

You could actually come up with batteries that very very cheap more than most people out there actually imagine.

This is actually a very good way for you to be able to find out if something makes sense or it is actually just something that everyone else is doing.

You could apply the first principles method to help make your life better, most times we end up making some major decisions in our lives based on information that is outdated or even false.

But the truth is that in a world that is rapidly changing, those historical truths and also experiences might not actually be able to work.

This is why you should actually take step back so that you can use this principle to create a life that customized for you and also offer a creative solution.

 You can use first principles to fix problems that do exist in your life daily like your relationships, finances, work or anything else out there that is bothering you. 

Apply the first principles to your life and find out what it has in store for you.

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