honestly after sitting down and talking
to him i realized
that i'm i'm now convinced that he's an
alien
i really i mean there's what what other
answer is there
during a one-on-one interview with chris
anderson
musk reveals this missing link which he
attributes to his
genius level creativity and success
well i do think there's a good framework
for thinking
it is physics boil things down to their
fundamental truths
and reason up from there as opposed to
reasoning by analogy
through most of our life we get through
life by reasoning by analogy
which essentially means copying what
other people do
with slight variations said elon musk
a first principle is a basic assumption
that cannot be deduced any further
over two thousand years ago aristotle
defined a first principle as
the first basis from which a thing is
known
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 essentially
first principles thinking will help you
develop a unique world view
to innovate and solve difficult problems
in a way that nobody else can even
fathom i'd like to ask him about his
thought process
and also i'm really curious about how in
the world
he manages to do multiple impossible
things because
doing one impossible thing is impossible
but doing
like five impossible things is the
product of five
impossibilities and that just seems like
hyper impossible
but he's managed it while musk admits
that arguing from first principles
takes a lot more mental energy you can
end up with
novel or even groundbreaking results
these fundamental principles are
basically the most
basic truths or elements of anything
the best way to uncover these truths is
to ask
powerful questions that uncover these
ingenious
gems here's a quick example from elon
musk during an interview with kevin rose
on how this works
do you example that like what's one
thing that you've done that on that you
feels worked for you
sure so um somebody could say that
battery packs are really expensive and
that's just the way they will always be
because that's the way they've been in
the past so first principles we say okay
what are the material constituents of
the batteries what is the spot market
value of the material constituents so
you can say okay it's got cobalt nickel
aluminum
carbon and some polymers for separation
and a steel can so break that down in
on a material basis and say if we bought
that on the london metal exchange what
would
each of those things cost like oh it's
like 80 dollars per kilowatt hour
so clearly you just need to think of
clever ways to
take those materials and combine them
into the shape of a battery cell
and you can have batteries that are much
much cheaper than
anyone realizes first principles
thinking helps you to cobble together
information from different disciplines
to create new ideas and innovations
you start by getting to the facts once
you have a foundation of facts
you can make a plan to improve each
little piece
this process naturally leads to
exploring
widely for better substitutes the human
tendency for imitation
is a common roadblock to first
principles thinking when most people
envision the future
they project the current form forward
rather than projecting the function
forward and abandoning the form for
instance
when criticizing technological progress
some people ask
where are the flying cars here's the
thing
we have flying cars they're called
airplanes
people who ask this question are so
focused on
form a flying object that looks like a
car
that they overlook the function
transportation by flight
this is what elon musk is referring to
when he says that people often
live life by analogy after our meeting i
sent him a tweet saying the world wants
to know uh
are you an alien and he responded saying
no i'm not but i used to be usually when
we're faced with complex problems
we default to thinking like everybody
else
first principles thinking is a powerful
way to help you break out of this herd
mentality
think outside the box and innovate
completely brand new solutions to
familiar problems
by identifying your current assumptions
breaking these down into their
basic truths and creating solutions from
scratch
you can uncover these ingenious
solutions to complex problems
and make unique contributions in any
field
many of the most groundbreaking ideas in
history
have been a result of boiling things
down to the first principles
and then substituting a more effective
solution
for one of the key parts for instance
johannes gutenberg
combined the technology of a screw press
a device used for making wine
with movable type paper and ink
to create the printing press movable
type
had been used for centuries but
gutenberg was the
first person to consider the constituent
parts of the process
and adapt technology from an entirely
different
field to make printing far more
efficient
the result was a world-changing
innovation
and the widespread distribution of
information for the first time in
history
the best solution is not where everyone
is already looking
be wary of the ideas you inherit old
conventions and previous forms
are often accepted without question and
once accepted
they set a boundary around creativity
this difference is one of the key
distinctions between continuous
improvement
and first principles thinking continuous
improvement tends to occur within the
boundary
set by the original vision by comparison
first principles thinking requires you
to abandon your allegiance to previous
forms
and put the function front and center
what are you trying to accomplish what
is the functional
outcome you are looking to achieve
optimize the function ignore the form
this is how you learn to think for
[Laughter]
[Music]
yourself