First Principle Knowledge

First principle thinking is the strategy that you can break down complicated problems and generating original solutions.

Musk said in an interview: Physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy

What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around two percent of the typical price.

Instead of buying a finished rocket for tens of millions, Musk decided to create his own company, purchase the raw materials for cheap, and build the rockets himself. SpaceX was born.

First principles thinking is the act of boiling a process down to the fundamental parts that you know are true and building up from there. Let's discuss how you can utilize first principles thinking in your life and work.

Imagine you have three things:

• A motorboat with a skier behind it
• A military tank
• A bicycle

Now, let's break these items down into their constituent parts:

• Motorboat: motor, the hull of a boat, and a pair of skis.
• Tank: metal treads, steel armor plates, and a gun.
• Bicycle: handlebars, wheels, gears, and a seat.

The Power of First Principles Ironically, perhaps the best way to develop cutting-edge ideas is to start by breaking things down to the fundamentals. Even if you aren't trying to develop innovative ideas, understanding the first principles of your field is a smart use of your time. Without a firm grasp of the basics, there is little chance of mastering the details that make the difference at elite levels of competition.

Every innovation, including the most groundbreaking ones, requires a long period of iteration and improvement. The company at the beginning of this article, SpaceX, ran many simulations, made thousands of adjustments, and required multiple trials before they figured out how to build an affordable and reusable rocket.