Become a Problem-Solving Machine!

Use First Principles Thinking to Revolutionize Your Workplace

Oct 01, 2023

Hey Friends,

Hope you are all doing wonderful as you enter the last quarter of this year. I cant believe that I’ve been doing this for about 9 months now (barring the small holiday break that I took). I hope it has been as useful to you, as much as it has been an intriguing pursuit for me.

Have you ever been in the situation where you execute a task or tasks because that’s what the “SOP” (Standard Operating Procedure) stated, or perhaps that’s what “someone” said you should do? Perhaps someone made rules that something is a requirement but no one can explain why. People say “This is how we have always done it” or “It’s mandatory for bla bla bla”.

Maybe as a leader you challenge people and this is the response you hear? Or, maybe this is your response when you are asked this question?

In whichever case you might be, this is a fundamental defeat on the part of the individual to accept status quo without challenging - or even simply questioning - “why” we do certain things.

Using rank as a justification usually means that the person either does not know it themselves, or at the other extreme could mean that they got tired of explaining it again and again. For the purposes of the article, I am relying on the former rationale where we all play a role in executing certain tasks for the sake of doing it, rather than for the necessity of that being done.

When I joined my current organization many moons ago, I used to pull reports and documents and send it to others as a periodic schedule either as physical copies in a courier, or as a digital attachment. I did that for a couple of months, and every month I did it, it just seemed like an idiotic approach.

When I challenged why do we do this, whats the purpose, the response I got was that was the SOP, and that’s the requirement that our customers have. I was new in the organization and since I did not want to piss off my manager, I continued doing it.

As time progressed, I was getting familiar with the needs of each individual customer and I began to change things up based on the purpose rather than the requirement.

What I demonstrated here was based on First Principles Thinking, however, I did not know at the time what it was called, much less that it was a “Principle” approach.

So, for today’s post, lets dive into this concept called “First Principles Thinking” and how this can help you become a problem solving machine!!

What is First Principles Thinking?

That, dear reader, is a basic example of First Principles Thinking. But with first principles thinking, you start from nothing.

Imagine you're building with blocks. Usually when you build, you copy things you've seen before - like a house or a tower. You may first try stacking them in various ways, and if it fails, you start again ground up from nothing, but this time with a different mindset or approach than the one that failed.

You start to build by questioning each process – why do the blocks topple over? You look at each individual block and think about what it can do on its own. Then you start putting blocks together in new ways, based only on how the blocks work.

The benefit of this is that you can build things no one has ever built before. You're not limited by what you've seen, only by how the blocks actually fit together.

These are the fundamentals of First Principles Thinking. You boil it down to the base blocks whose combination you constantly reconfigure till you get to the expected or right outcome.

Rather than blindly believing what you've been told, first-principles thinkers go back to the fundamentals. You dissect complex issues to understand their inner workings.

Learning how to ride a bike, for instance, requires going back to the basics and not merely imitating other people's actions. Knowing how to balance, how to pedal to move the wheels, and how to steer is essential. It's up to you to assemble the pieces in a way that makes sense.

First Principles Thinking is to reduce something to its elemental building blocks so that you can rebuild it from scratch. It's a radical method of thinking that forces you to examine your foundational beliefs and challenge everything you've been taught up until now.

How Does It Benefit Us?

First principles thinking helps find new ways to solve problems that other people might miss. It does this by looking at problems at their very core. It lets people come up with new ideas and be more creative without being limited by preconceived notions or standard practises in the business. Some important perks are:

Problem-Solving: When you break down problems to their most basic forms, you can come up with innovative solutions.
Innovative Ideas: This method can generate innovative ideas that defy traditional norms and set new industry standards. It enables "outside the box" ideas by considering a broad range of potential approaches rather than narrowing options prematurely.
Clear Thinking: It promotes an unbiased and clear way of thinking, allowing us to approach issues without any presumption. A more holistic understanding of complex issues can be gained by rebuilding knowledge from basic facts rather than surface-level conclusions.
Eliminate flaws and illogical assumptions: Identifying flawed or illogical assumptions that may be limiting current thinking. Questioning "why" things are done a certain way often reveals room for improvement.
Future-proofing solutions designed from first principles, as they're less likely to become obsolete with changing conditions over time.

Using First Principles in the Workplace

First Principles Thinking can revolutionize how we work. It allows for questioning assumptions and starting over from scratch.

The example I started with is only the tip of the Iceberg. These principles can be applied to organizations of any size. I would go so far as to say, the impact of using these principles may be felt more in larger organizations because it is these places that have the highest tendency to create SOPs and structures to “standardize” that over time even though situations change, people continue to execute based on old realities.

I have mentioned this in one of my earlier newsletters -If you execute a job the same as anyone else, you are easily replaceable. What makes you special is your capability to go beyond “rules” and “SOP’s” and bring your skills into the equation which are not easily replaceable; or even available to begin with. That is YOUR Unique Proposition of what you bring to the table.

The tendency to follow existing procedures often cages innovation. Starting with a clean slate this way can lead to an increase in efficiency and productivity.

While brainstorming solutions for an ongoing project, question every norm, and grow from there. Eliminate bias in any situation and try to define the outcomes clearly. This allows for the building blocks to be stacked with the outcomes in mind instead of being limited by bias.

Instead of just doing things as they've always been done, you look at the core purpose and recreate processes from the ground up.

Real World Examples

Now I know some of you are going to hate me for this, but a lot of you already know that I follow Tesla and Elon Musk like a hawk. I try to pick up lessons on what they do differently compared to others in similar industry or fields. This is part of my research before I decide to invest my hard earned money and along with that research comes a lot of learnings.

Elon Musk is renowned for his first principles-driven approach to problems. When others said electric cars or reusable rockets were impossible to create, Musk went back to physics fundamentals to prove them wrong.

At SpaceX, he questioned the assumption that rockets must be disposable rather than designed for reusability. By re-envisioning rocketry from first principles, SpaceX achieved a technological leap that slashed launch costs.

In fact, the lessons they learnt from Space X is what he brought into Tesla, and also the other way around. Instead of relying on multiple manufacturers for components that could dictate delays to his timeline of vehicles and rockets, he decided to increase vertical manufacture of all components inhouse. This way he is not limited by other peoples capabilities to provide components timely, and thus affecting timelines for Rocket launches, or Car production both of which are extremely expensive.

Jeff Bezos also applies this method at Amazon. He asks teams to justify current processes by deriving them from root objectives, weeding out unnecessary steps. This continuous optimization mindset fuels Amazon's rapid innovation cycle.

Coaching Others and the First Principles “Cheat Sheet”

Whether you are a leader or leader led, coaching others in applying First Principles Thinking is about fostering a culture of curiosity and questioning, rather than following set procedures.

Encourage 'why' questions and promote openness to new and simpler solutions. Remember, the goal is to deconstruct complexity and rebuild, compact and simple.

The key is to practice questioning assumptions in a structured way. Here is a “cheat sheet” to get started:

Clearly define your objective without constraints of current paradigms.
Break the problem down into its fundamental components or building blocks.
Analyze how each element functionally relates independent of preconceptions.
Find your FIRST principles – the fundamental truths. Synthesize your understanding to derive new solutions from first principles.
Begin to think, plan, and build back up from these principles. Continually re-examine your work with a beginner's mindset to improve.

Wrapping Up

Zooming in to observe an issue at its most concrete level allows us to remove unnecessary complications. Just like every building block counts in your castle, each question adds to the solution.

First principles thinking is a powerful mental model that can help solve complex challenges in new ways. While difficult, making it a regular habit can yield tremendous rewards. I encourage you to start applying this approach on small problems first to build the skill over time.

And remember, be liberal with your ‘whys’. As always, question, reconstruct, and be open to new insights.

With practice, first principles thinking will become second nature for innovative breakthroughs.

Ready to change the world with your new lens? Start questioning today!

Thanks for being with here this far! Do you have any experiences that you can think of where you could have applied First Principles? Any successes in the past that you can recall but didn’t know that you were applying the first principles? Please do share your experiences in the comments below.

By George!

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