Building new products and services faces a mental road block. It also happens when dealing with a complex problem too. The tendency of the vast majority is to do things the way it has been done by everyone. Using time established methods creates a sense of comfort and avoids uncertainty of future outcomes. In a world that increasingly values convenience, speed of execution – using an established way of working is path of least resistance. People also do not want to do something completely new and instead choose to replicate what worked before for fear of offending the status quo.
This is the sphere of conventional wisdom. It relies heavily on mental shortcuts that prioritize tradition, experience, and societal norms. Such methods work well when you have a short time to deal with things, you have to decide quickly, or when the stakes are low. There is no need to innovate or think differently when you are trying to pick a good dress for a business meeting or planning to grab some lunch. However, when trying to achieve something innovative and ground-breaking, come up with a solution for a complex problem, or do something to make a meaningful difference, conventional wisdom often becomes a liability rather than an asset.
This is exactly where First Principles Thinking comes in and plays a big role.
Rooted in philosophy and physics, First Principles Thinking is a process that involves breaking down a problem into its most fundamental truths and then building solutions from the ground up. In this method, one does not use or rely on analogy, assumption, or previous examples. First Principles Thinking encourages you to think about what you know about this problem or challenge to be true, and what you can create from that specific starting point.
This unique approach has paved the way for some of the most innovative and ground-breaking inventions in human history. The Wright brothers applied this method to invent powered flight. Elon Musk applied First Principles Thinking to develop more affordable batteries for electric cars and rockets, which led to the creation of Tesla’s electric vehicles and SpaceX’s reusable rockets. So why don’t more and more people use this thinking method?
The comfort and familiarity of conventional wisdom
The truth is, for most people, the tenets of conventional wisdom feel safe. It’s socially reinforced and familiar. When you know that things are always done in a particular way, it automatically encourages you to follow the same methods, instead of breaking new ground. While this mindset is inherently wrong, it does tend to optimize working methods for the status quo and prevent breakthroughs.
Professionals in almost every industry rely on “best practices” without actually questioning why those methods and practices exist in the first place. In schools, students typically memorize their lessons instead of understanding them. We eventually give rise to a society that becomes resistant to change, instead of reimagining things to make them better.
Why Most People Get It Backwards
Here’s the main problem. When people face a difficult problem, they try to solve it by eventually adding more complexity to it, such as more opinions, more data, and more layers of abstraction. First Principles Thinking functions oppositely. It solves complexity by going into its deeper layers instead of broadening the scope. First Principles Thinking allows people to think about the irreducible components of a problem, such as the facts, laws, and constraints that are true, and then work on a solution from there, which often turns out to be ground-breaking.
