First Principles: Elon Musk on the Power of Thinking for Yourself

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.

First principles thinking is a fancy way of saying "think like a scientist." Scientists don't assume anything. They start with questions like, What are we absolutely sure is true? What has been proven?

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.

What can you create from these individual parts? One option is to make a snowmobile by combining the handlebars and seat from the bike, the metal treads from the tank, and the motor and skis from the boat.