The Ultimate Guide To First Principles Thinking

“I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy." - Elon Musk

Choosing the right set of Lego blocks for your thinking is the key, and it's harder than it may seem. There is so much knowledge out there – how are you supposed to decide whether something goes into a "first-principles thinking tool-chest".

First principles are the Lego building blocks for thinking. These Lego blocks, once carefully assembled with forethought, are reusable. With the right set of first-principles, you can start mixing them in ways you couldn't before allowing you to think better and faster. 

A first principle is a basic assumption that cannot be deduced from any other assumption. In Mathematics, these are called axioms.