The First Principle Thinking

As I recently started my product journey in Product Management
I am working towards building a product mindset but before delving into product fundamentals I got to go through the insightful Principle, i.e., The First Principle Thinking, and below I’d share my learning about it. 👇

“First-principles thinking” (or “reasoning from first principles”) is a problem-solving technique that requires you to break down a complex problem into its most basic, foundational elements. The idea: to ground yourself in the foundational truths and build up from there. 💬
First principles thinking is applicable to solving complex engineering, science, business, or product-related problems in addition to the problems we face in our everyday lives. 💥

First principles thinking helps us to view everything in this world in the form of cause-and-effect relationships and demystify the causes further to understand the most fundamental reasons why a thing exists. 💯

The first principles approach has been used by many great thinkers including inventor Johannes Gutenberg, military strategist John Boyd, and the ancient philosopher Aristotle, but no one embodies the philosophy of first principles thinking more effectively than entrepreneur Elon Musk, which led him to come up with the idea of SpaceX. 🚀

First principles thinking helps you to cobble together information from different disciplines to create new ideas and innovations, just like a curious kid who keeps on asking “WHY” for everything, similarly in an organization or in our life we can break down problems and processes using this same method. Eventually, you’ll arrive at a question you can’t answer — this is where you develop a new solution. 🧠

Therefore, First principles thinking is about decomposing a problem or a thing into its most basic elements which can be termed as first causes.

Stay tuned for more.. 🔥