First Principles

In an interview a few years ago, Musk explained in detail what “first principles” are:

Ordinary people use “analogy” in life, and the “analogy” way of thinking can only produce small iterative developments. But “First Principles” requires you to look at the world from a physical perspective. It boils things down to the most fundamental truth, and then reasons from there. Using First Principles thinking can often bring disruptive innovation.

In the process of founding Tesla, Musk adopted “First Principles” for thinking. In the interview, he used the example of batteries to explain to you in detail.

First Principles thinking is different from root cause analysis thinking. One starts from the problem to deduce the root cause; the other starts from the principle to deduce the solution.

If you use root cause analysis thinking, starting from the problem, it can discover sub-path 1 → path 1 → first principle step by step; but it is difficult to discover path 2, path 3, and path 4, because this way of thinking starts deduction from the problem. And new paths (innovation) are precisely hidden in path 2, path 3, and path 4. This is the fundamental reason why using First Principles thinking can often bring disruptive innovation.

First Principles thinking has limitations. The best way to avoid this embarrassment is to collect more first principles. The more you collect, the more problems you can solve; the shortcut to cultivating First Principles thinking is interdisciplinary learning.

Warren Buffett’s most important partner, Charlie Munger, once said that he loves learning, especially interdisciplinary learning. In this way, he collected more than 100 thinking models, and he used these models to formulate investment strategies.

First Principles - Elon Musk Original Interview

Published at: Jun 14, 2020 · Modified at: Dec 4, 2025