How To Impress Your Boss: The 5 Step Process to Solve Problems with First Principles Thinking đ
Welcome to instalment #2 of the âHow To Impress Your Bossâ series.
This week, weâll be talking about using First Principles Thinking as a way of effectively solving complex problems.
But what actually is First Principles Thinking?
How does it help you solve problems (both in your work and personal life) more effectively?
Letâs get startedâŚ.
WTF is First Principles Thinking?
In maths and physics, using âFirst Principlesâ means starting from scratch and using algebra to find a general expression for something, instead of using maths-hacks like âmove the index number to the front and then take away oneâ.
For example, letâs say you want to differentiate x².
The classic move is to move the 2 to the front, and then take away 1 from the index number, giving you 2xš (or just 2x).
That works.
But you donât actually understand how differentiation works.
And when a harder and more interesting problem comes up, you might not be able to solve it that way.
Thinking from first principles would look something like this:
Ew.
Letâs not get into the maths here â this is definitely way more effort, but here weâre literally taking the fundaments of algebra and calculus and âreasoning upâ from there to get 2x.
Knowledge of how to do this will make you a master of calculus: you can tackle any calculus problem because youâve broken down the assumptions of calculus to get your answer.
Ok⌠thanks for the maths lesson Mr Rutherford â WTF has this got to do with my life?
First principles thinking is a mental model: itâs a way of thinking that helps you break down complicated problems into little pieces â into their most fundamental truths â and come up with solutions that are typically original, creative and innovative.
Itâs a way of thinking thatâs in direct contrast to âthinking by analogyâ, which is what most people do. Thinking by analogy looks something like this:
Thinking by analogy is thinking how other people think. Itâs thinking âitâs been done that way in the past, so letâs keep on doing it that wayâ.
If everyone thought that way, we wouldnât have planes, computer, the printing press, and so many other innovations that we take for granted today.
The classic example of First Principles thinking is how Elon Musk approached building Rockets for SpaceX
In this video, Musk explains how he used First Principles thinking to make batteries âmuch much cheaperâ.
He similarly used First Principles Thinking when thinking about how to build a rocket to fly to mars.
Buying a rocket costs around $65m. Thatâs expensive â even for Elon.
Most people at this point would say âwell, itâs too expensive to build a rocket to fly to Mars, letâs just go to the Moon again or something?â
Thatâs thinking by analogy.
But Elon is different.
He broke the problem down to its core constituents.
What are the fundamentally necessary ingredients to build a rocket?
You need some aluminium alloys, carbon fiber, titanium and copper.
Theyâre actually pretty cheap; itâs the way of joining them together to make a rocket thatâs expensive.
So if you buy all of the materials and come up with clever ways of mixing them up to build a rocket, you can build a rocket for way cheaper than $65m and maybe flying to the moon isnât so impossible after all!
Using this form of reasoning, SpaceX have built rockets that are over 10x cheaper than traditional rockets.
Not bad, eh? đ¤
Another perhaps more simple example is the suitcase with wheels.
Believe it or not, until the 1970s, suitcases didnât have wheels.
They all pretty much looked like this
Folks were trying to âinnovateâ in the suitcase space: they were using new materials to try to make it 2â3% lighter, putting the handle bar in slightly different places so that it would be 2â3% more comfortable.
Until Bernard Sadow came along in 1970 and invented the âsuitcase on wheelsâ.
Instead of thinking by analogy and trying to optimise and iterate on a pre-determined design, similar to Elon Musk, he thought about it differently.
We can break his method down into 5 fundamental steps.
The 5 step method to thinking in First Principles
- What goal am I trying to achieve?
A suitcase is annoying and heavy to carry around. Imagine if we could make it easier and lighter to carry?
2. What obstacle are getting in the way?
Itâs too heavy, despite having lighter materials, moving the position of the handle etc
3. What assumptions are behind these obstacles?
Weâre assuming that it has to be carried. Why?
4. What is the actual problem here?
We need to find a way to make it easier to transport luggage â that might not have to entail âcarryingâ them.
5. Whatâs a new solution?
Bags on wheels!
Boom
Ok, but Iâm not thinking about inventing new rockets or suitcases â how can I apply this to my everyday life? đ¤ˇââď¸
Hereâs how I recently used this 5-step method to overcome a financial hurdle in building a business.
Building a business
Thinking by Analogy:
I want to start a business and drive traffic to my website but I have to spend so much money on marketing and advertising, but itâs expensive đ
Thinking by first principles:
- What goal am I trying to achieve?
I want over 1,000 17â18 year old students thinking about applying to university to visit our website every day.
2. What obstacles are getting in the way?
Driving traffic is expensive. Ads cost a lot of $$$ and I canât justify hiring fancy marketing consultants, who are also very expensive.
3. What assumptions are behind these obstacles?
- The only way of driving traffic to websites is through advertising/social media
- You have to pay a lot of money for those things
4. Whatâs the actual problem here (What do my students actually want)?
Theyâre 17â18 years old.
Universities are throwing marketing at them left right and centre trying to âsellâ them their degree at their university.
They canât visit universities because of COVID and theyâre not getting the most up-to-date info from their cousins/teachers, so they just donât know what and where to study.
They want honest, unbiased information from students actually there. They want to know what itâs actually like studying X degree at Y university.
5. Whatâs a new solution?
Why donât we build a free online encyclopaedia where they can search up (almost) any course at any major university in the UK and learn everything they need to know from actual students studying those degrees at those universities?
Weâll make it totally free, reach out to tonnes of students who are super keen to share their experiences to help and advise their youngers, and build a one-stop-shop so everything they ever need, including example timetables, application advice, personal statement examples, etc etc, is all there.
Weâll call it something catchy like The WTF Should I Study At Uni Guide, DM over 1000 teachers with the free resource and get them to share it with their students, and make sure they we have Call-To-Actions to our website on every page.
Thatâll be the funnel to our website đ
Problem solved đŞ
The next time youâre at work and thereâs an issue, most people will think by analogy. Itâs not their fault: despite all being excellent first principle thinkers as children (constantly asking âWhy? Why? Why? all the time), weâve been socialised out of it.
Thereâs probably a solution to the problem, and if you reason from first principles youâre likely to get everyone to that solution đ
Thatâll impress your boss, but more importantly, help you add value to your company đ
On another note, my friend Andrew and I have started an Accountability Club.
Itâs an exclusive members-only WhatsApp group, where we hold each other accountable to our goals and habits, with consequences attached if you break your promises đŹ
There are big things we all want to do and achieve, but most of the time procrastination & laziness get in the way.
Accountability is the key to surmounting these obstacles.
Weâre only taking on 10 people while we test it out, so if youâre interested, please complete this 3-Question Application Form đ
Weâll get back to you if we think youâre a good fit for the first Accountability Club cohort!