First Principles Thinking

If you ask a normal person how to build a rocket, they will look at how NASA does it and try to copy them slightly cheaper.
If you ask Elon Musk, he ignores NASA. He looks at the raw materials—aluminum, titanium, copper—and asks, "What is the cost of these atoms on the market?" He realizes the materials are cheap, so the high cost must be in the process. He reinvents the process from scratch.

This is called First Principles Thinking.

The Chef vs. The Cook

There is a famous analogy to explain this:

  > The Cook works by Analogy. They follow a recipe. If they lose the recipe, they can't make the dish. They do things because "that's how it's always been done."

  > The Chef works by First Principles. They understand the basic chemistry of flavor and heat. They don't need a recipe; they can invent a new dish using whatever ingredients are available.

In school, most students are Cooks. They memorize formulas. At Quriosity, we want you to be a Chef. We want you to understand why the formula works so you can derive it yourself.

How to Think in First Principles

You can apply this to any difficult problem using a 3-step process:

  > Identify the Problem: "I can't get an A in Math."

  > Break it Down (Deconstruct): ignore your past grades. What is a math grade made of? It is made of Quiz Scores + Homework + Test Scores.

  > Reconstruct from the Bottom Up:

   > Are you losing points on homework? No, those are perfect.

   > Are you losing points on tests? Yes.

   > Why? Anxiety? Lack of time? Or lack of understanding?

   > Root Truth: "I run out of time."

   > New Strategy: Focus purely on speed drills.

By stripping the problem down to its fundamental parts, you stop blindly trying to "study harder" and start solving the actual issue.

The Takeaway:
Reasoning by analogy is safe, but reasoning by first principles is how you change the world. Don't assume something is impossible just because no one else has done it. Break it down and build it back up.