Problem Solving with First Principles Thinking | Rajat Kumar

Ever come across a complex, ambiguous, or seemingly impossible problem and not sure what to do? Apply first principles thinking.

Let's take an example before defining what it is:

Elon Musk wanted to build a company that could disrupt the space industry. Conventional wisdom said it's an exercise in futility - it's rocket science after all, super complex, super expensive and super impossible.

But instead of sipping a mimosa on a tropical island anywhere across the world, Elon went to the most fundamental building blocks to challenge assumptions, find new solutions and create a new cost-effective way to build rockets and go to space. 

He asked, "What are rockets made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. What is the value of those materials on the commodity market?" It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was only 2% percent of the typical price. And thus, SpaceX was born. Instead of buying a finished rocket for tens of millions of $$, they built the rockets themselves. 

Today, SpaceX is an iconic company and may as well turn us into an interplanetary society and beyond. 

That's the power of first principles thinking: You take a complex problem and break it down to the most fundamental parts (that cannot be broken down further) that you know are true and build up from there. You dig deeper and deeper until you are left with only the foundational truths.  

With first-principle thinking, you can challenge assumptions, find new solutions and create breakthrough innovations in any field. 

From a personal experience that I recall at work, my team was working on increasing the accuracy of a predictive model and we tried countless approaches with little success. In hindsight, we should have asked ourselves, what fundamental problem are we solving for the client? Is machine learning the only way to do it? Will a 5% increase lead to any difference? Are there existing solutions already available? Do we really need to spend more time and resources on accuracy instead of going deeper into the problem itself? 

Here's a quick step-by-step method to implement this principle in your life:

1. Clarify your thinking by going to the origin of your problem
2. Rethink the original questions, challenge assumptions and reason by first principles rather than analogy 
3. Look for evidence supporting your new thought process
4. Consider alternatives to current and new approach
5. Examine the consequences and implications

As Mr. Musk rightly said,

"it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e., the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to."

What are you hanging on to?