First Principles Thinking

Strip away assumptions to find fundamental truths, then build solutions from the ground up.

Why It Works

Most thinking is by analogy: "This is like that, so do what worked before." First principles asks: "What's actually true here?" This is how breakthrough innovation happens.

Process

1. Identify the problem and conventional approach
2. List all assumptions embedded in that approach
3. Question each assumption ruthlessly
4. Identify what's fundamentally, unavoidably true
5. Build a new solution from those fundamentals

Output Format

## First Principles: [Problem]

### The Conventional Approach
[How this is usually solved]

### Embedded Assumptions
| Assumption | Why We Assume This | Actually True? |
|------------|-------------------|----------------|
| [Assumption 1] | [Origin of belief] | [Yes/No/Partially] |
| [Assumption 2] | [Origin of belief] | [Yes/No/Partially] |
| [Assumption 3] | [Origin of belief] | [Yes/No/Partially] |
| [Assumption 4] | [Origin of belief] | [Yes/No/Partially] |
| [Assumption 5] | [Origin of belief] | [Yes/No/Partially] |

### Fundamental Truths
What remains after stripping away assumptions:
- [Undeniable truth 1]
- [Undeniable truth 2]
- [Undeniable truth 3]

### Physical/Logical Constraints
- [Hard constraint 1]
- [Hard constraint 2]

### Rebuilding from Fundamentals

**Given these truths, what's actually possible?**
[New approach built from fundamentals]

**Why this is different:**
[How it breaks from conventional thinking]

### The Insight
[The key realization from this analysis]

Example: Elon Musk on Batteries

Conventional: "Batteries cost $600/kWh, that's just what they cost."

First Principles:

• What are batteries made of? (Cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, polymers, steel)
• What do those materials cost on the London Metal Exchange? (~$80/kWh)
• Why the gap? (Manufacturing process, supplier margins, industry structure)
• Can we change those factors? (Yes—vertical integration, new processes)

Result: Tesla's battery cost trajectory

Questioning Prompts

• "Why does it have to be this way?"
• "What if we started from scratch?"
• "What's the physics/logic here?"
• "Who says this is a rule?"
• "What would a Martian think about this?"

Apply to user's problem immediately.