Elon Musks 3-step first principles thinking How to solve difficult problems like a genius

Elon Musks 3-step first principles thinking How to solve difficult harte nusss like a geniusElon Musks 3-step first principles thinking How to solve difficult problems like a geniusBy the age of 46 years old, Elon Musk has innovated and built three revolutionary multibillion-dollar companies in completely different fields- Paypal(Financial Services), Tesla Motors (Automotive) and SpaceX (Aerospace).This list doesnt even include Solar City (Energy), which he helped build and acquired for $2.6 Billion recently.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraAt first glance, its easy to link his rapid success, ability to solve unsolvable problems and genius level creativity to his incredible work ethic.Musk himself stated that he worked approximately 100 hours a week for over 15 years and recently scaled down to 85 hours. Rumour also has it that he doesnt even take lunch breaks, multitaskingbetwe en eating, meetings and responding to emails all at the saatkorn time.No doubt work ethic plays an important role in unlocking your inner creative genius and becoming the best at what you do- but theres more to this- there are extremely hard-working people who still make little progress in life and die before sharing their best work with the world.What then is this missing link for innovative creativity and accelerated success?Just like Musk, some of the fruchtwein brilliant minds of all-time- Aristotle, Euclid, Thomas Edison, Feynman and Nikola Tesla- use this missing link for accelerated learning, solving difficult problems and creating great work in their lifetime.This missing link has little to do with how hard they work. It has everything to do with how theythink.Lets talk about how you can quickly use this genius problem-solving method.First Principles ThinkingDuring a one on one interview with TED Curator, Chris Anderson, Musk reveals this missing link which he attributes to his genius level creativity and success. Its called reasoning from First Principles.MuskWell, I do think theres a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know, the sort of first principles reasoning. Generally, I think there are - what I mean by that is, boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy.Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations.In laymans terms, first principles thinking is basically the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think youknowabout a given problem or scenario- and then creating new knowledge and solutions from scratch. Almost like a newborn baby.On the flip side, reasoning by analogy is building knowledge and solving problems based on prior assumptions, beliefs and widely held best practices approved by the majority of people.Essentially, first principles thinking will he lp you develop a unique worldview to innovate and solve difficult problems in a way that nobody else can even fathom.Heres how you can quickly use this in 3 simple steps recommended by Elon Musk himself.STEP 1 Identify and define your current assumptionsIf I had an hour to solve a problem, Id spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. Albert EinsteinHere are some examples from everyday life in business, health and craft.Growing my business will cost a lot of money.I have to struggle and starve to become a successful akrobat.I just cant find enough time to workout and reach my weight loss goals.When next youre faced with a familiar problem or challenge, simply write down your current assumptions about them. (Note You can stop here and write these down now)STEP 2 Breakdown the problem into its fundamental principles.It is important to view knowledge as sort of semantic tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is bedrngnishing for them to hang on to. 2 Elon MuskThese fundamental principles are basically the most basic truths or elements of anything.The best way to uncover these truths is to ask powerful questions that uncover these ingenious gems.Heres a quick example from Elon Musk during an interview with Kevin Rose on how this works.Somebody could say, Battery packs are really expensive and thats just the way they will always be Historically, it has cost $600 per kilowatt hour. Its not going to be much better than that in the future.With first principles, you say, What are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the stock market value of the material constituents?Its got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, some polymers for separation and a seal can. Break that down on a material basis and say, If we bought that on the London Metal Exchange what would each of those things cost?Its like $80 per kilowatt hour. So cle arly you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes.This is classic first principles thinking in action.Instead of following the socially accepted beliefs that battery packs were expensive, Musk challenges these beliefs by asking powerful questions that uncover the basic truths or elements i.e. carbon, nickel, aluminium.Then, he creates ingenious innovative solutions literally from scratch.STEP 3 Create new solutions from scratchThe person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.- Mortimer AdlerOnce youve identified and broken down your problems or assumptions into their most basic truths, you can begin to create new insightful solutions from scratch. 4Here are three simple everyday examples of how this works (Step 1 to Step 3).Assumption Growing my business will cost too much moneyFirst prin ciples thinkingWhat do you need to grow a profitable business? I need to sell products or services to more customers.Does it have to cost a lot of money to sell to new customers? Not necessarily, but ill probably need access to these new customers inexpensively.Who has this access and how you can create a win-win deal? I guess I could partner with other businesses that serve the same customer and split the profits 5050. Interesting.Assumption I just cant find enough time to workout and reach my weight loss goals.First principles thinkingWhat do you really need to reach your weight loss goal? I need to exercise more, preferably 5 days a week for an hour each time. Could you still lose weight exercising less frequently, if so how? Possibly, I could try 15 minute workouts, 3 days a week. These could be quick high-intensity full body workouts that will speed up my fat loss in less time.Assumption I have to struggle and starve to become a successful artistFirst principles thinkingWhat do you really need to create great work and make a good living as an artist? I would need a reasonably sized audience that will appreciate and buy my artwork.What do you need to reach a larger audience? I probably need to do some marketing, but I dont like self-promoting so Id rather not do this.Ok, is there any way for you to promote your work without being sleazy? Yes, if the focus of selling my artwork is meaningful with a purpose of serving the audience- then I could make more money to make more art, so I can serve more people. InterestingThink DifferentUsually, when were faced with complex problems, we default to thinking like everybody else. First principles thinking is a powerful way to help you break out of this herd mentality, think outside the box and innovate completely brand new solutions to familiar problems.By identifying your current assumptions, breaking these down into their basic truths and creating solutions from scratch- you can uncover these ingenious solutions to complex problems and make unique contributions in any field.This article first appeared on Mayo Oshin.Mayo Oshin writes at MayoOshin.Com, where he shares the best practical ideas based on proven science and the habits of highly successful people for stress-free productivity and improved mental performance. To get these strategies to stop procrastinating, get more things by doing less and improve your focus, join his free weekly newsletter.FOOTNOTESIn thisinterview, Musk talks about this 100 hour work week. This is hisinterviewon TED about first principles thinking.Musk gave this answer to a question from a reader asking him how he learns so fast.(source)Musksinterviewwith Kevin Rose on first principles thinking and battery analogy.This is not always easy. In fact, sometimes it can be a tough mental workout to use first principles thinking simply because its much easier to default back to what you already know. Because of our prior assumptions and limiting beliefs, we have a tendenc y to only think of a very limited range of creative uses or solutions to any given problem. This is more formally known as functional fixedness.Dr.Tony McCaffery, Cognitive Psychologist and Innovation expert, has developed a simple method that can help us overcome this tendency and uncover creative solutions. You can read about his general parts techniquehere.Thanks to peter atrenaissance man journalfor some inspiring insights on first principles thinking.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people