Elon Musk is a big believer in First Principles Thinking.

Not just Musk — Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and Feynman too.

Here's what it is, how to use it, and become better at it:

What it is:

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on First Principles Thinking:

It means "boiling things down to the most fundamental truths and then reasoning up from there."
A first principle is a basic truth that cannot be broken down any further.

God — this reminds me of high school chemistry when we first learnt about Atoms.

But that's what they're like! The basic foundations.

Here are 2 techniques to use First Principles Thinking:
1. The Five Whys

This is simple. Keep asking why.

Already asked why? Ask again.

Continuously ask why things are the way they are.

It'll help you discover the root causes of problems (hence helping you solve them).

You know what — Children are great at this...
Children question everything.

They keep asking why (almost to the point that it gets annoying).

Their curiosity enables them to think from first principles.

As we get older, we lose this child-like curiosity to keep asking why.
Quick note:

You don't have to stop after 5 why's but it's usually enough to get to the fundamental truth.
2. Socratic Questioning

The second technique for First Principles Thinking is Socratic Questioning.

6 types of questions you can ask to dig deeper in search of the first principle (via https://t.co/HR9sOSzW5C):
Lastly, here's the video of Elon talking about First Principles in 2013:
Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos):

Resist proxies. Don’t mindlessly follow processes, or unquestioningly accept survey data. That is reasoning by analogy. Go out and discover fundamental truths — focus on outcomes, and real customer feedback.
Peter Thiel (@peterthiel):

True innovation comes from discovering an important, fundamental truth that few people agree with you on — a secret. First principles thinking helps you discover secrets to achieve vertical progress (0 to 1).
Richard Feynman:

Do your own homework. To truly use first principles, don’t rely on experts or previous work. Approach new problems with the mindset of a novice. Truly understand the fundamental data, assumptions and reasoning yourself. Be curious.
That's it on the First Principles Thinking mental model.

I love it because it's simply about being curious and inquisitive about things you're genuinely interested in.

Don't shy away from asking questions.
Anyway if you want to go down a reading rabbit hole this beautiful Sunday, see https://t.co/1qzKQGlZZB

Also — drop a follow for more!

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हमारे ऋषि मुनि विद्वान थे, वे जो बात करते या कहते थे उसके पीछे कोई न कोई वैज्ञानिक कारण छुपा होता था।

एक बहुत रोचक तथ्य है पितृ पक्ष, भादो( भाद्रपद) प्रकृति और काक के बीच।

एक बात जो कह सकते कि हम सब ने स्वतः उग आये पीपल या बरगद का पेड़/ पौधा किसी न किसी दीवार, पुरानी

इमारत, पर्वत या अट्टालिकाओं पर ज़रूर देखा होगा। देखा है न?

ज़रा सोचिये पीपल या बरगद की बीज कैसे पहुंचे होंगे वहाँ तक? इनके बीज इतने हल्के भी नहीं होते के हवा उन्हें उड़ाके ले जा सके।
Trump is gonna let the Mueller investigation end all on it's own. It's obvious. All the hysteria of the past 2 weeks about his supposed impending firing of Mueller was a distraction. He was never going to fire Mueller and he's not going to


Mueller's officially end his investigation all on his own and he's gonna say he found no evidence of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

Democrats & DNC Media are going to LITERALLY have nothing coherent to say in response to that.

Mueller's team was 100% partisan.

That's why it's brilliant. NOBODY will be able to claim this team of partisan Democrats didn't go the EXTRA 20 MILES looking for ANY evidence they could find of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election

They looked high.

They looked low.

They looked underneath every rock, behind every tree, into every bush.

And they found...NOTHING.

Those saying Mueller will file obstruction charges against Trump: laughable.

What documents did Trump tell the Mueller team it couldn't have? What witnesses were withheld and never interviewed?

THERE WEREN'T ANY.

Mueller got full 100% cooperation as the record will show.
@franciscodeasis https://t.co/OuQaBRFPu7
Unfortunately the "This work includes the identification of viral sequences in bat samples, and has resulted in the isolation of three bat SARS-related coronaviruses that are now used as reagents to test therapeutics and vaccines." were BEFORE the


chimeric infectious clone grants were there.https://t.co/DAArwFkz6v is in 2017, Rs4231.
https://t.co/UgXygDjYbW is in 2016, RsSHC014 and RsWIV16.
https://t.co/krO69CsJ94 is in 2013, RsWIV1. notice that this is before the beginning of the project

starting in 2016. Also remember that they told about only 3 isolates/live viruses. RsSHC014 is a live infectious clone that is just as alive as those other "Isolates".

P.D. somehow is able to use funds that he have yet recieved yet, and send results and sequences from late 2019 back in time into 2015,2013 and 2016!

https://t.co/4wC7k1Lh54 Ref 3: Why ALL your pangolin samples were PCR negative? to avoid deep sequencing and accidentally reveal Paguma Larvata and Oryctolagus Cuniculus?