Elon Musk built rockets for 2% of NASA’s cost.
Jeff Bezos built the fastest supply chain in history.
Both use a 2,300-year-old method to turn “impossible” into reality while everyone else follows the rules.
Here’s how First Principles thinking works (and how to use it):
Most people solve problems by reasoning by analogy.
They look at what’s been done before and make small improvements.
First principles flips that.
You break a problem down to its fundamental truths and then reason up from there, ignoring convention.
Aristotle defined it 2,300 years ago: “A first principle is the first basis from which a thing is known.”
Reasoning by analogy is safe, but it limits innovation.
First Principles Thinking starts with physics-like truths, things you know are real, and ignores everything else.
In 2002, Musk wanted to send a rocket to Mars.
Buying one was too expensive.
Most people would say: “Okay, rockets cost $65M. We can’t afford that.”
Musk instead asked: “What is a rocket made of?”
Steel, titanium, aluminum, and carbon fiber.
Then he calculated the raw material cost, about $2M.
His conclusion? “We can build one ourselves.”
This thinking became SpaceX.
At Amazon, Bezos banned PowerPoints for decision-making.
Why? They encourage analogy, stories, comparisons, and opinions.
Instead, Bezos demanded 6-page narrative memos, forcing teams to break problems into root causes and facts.
This first-principles style birthed:
- AWS (world’s largest cloud provider)
- Amazon Marketplace (now >60% of sales)
- Amazon Prime (launched despite skeptics)
You can apply first principles thinking in 3 steps:
1. Define the problem clearly.
2. Break it down into undeniable truths.
3. Rebuild a solution from those truths, ignoring what’s “normal.”
Example:
Problem: “It’s too expensive to start an online store.”
Truths: Digital storefronts are cheap, global supply chains exist, and marketing can be automated.
Solution: Platforms like Shopify.
First principles thinking is hard because it forces you to challenge assumptions, even the ones you didn’t know you had.
But it’s also why it’s rare.
As Musk says: “You can’t solve a problem if you don’t challenge the assumptions behind it.”
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