Ep 214 | Problem Solving Through First Principles Thinking

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about first principles thinking. First principles thinking. Now I am talking about first principles thinking because I feel like Everywhere I'm turning right now, mentors and individuals I follow have been using this term with me. And frankly, I wasn't as clear around what first principles thinking entailed. So I had to do a deep dive and get a better understanding. What I suspected turned out to be pretty close to, to right, but I still learned quite a bit and I thought I had to share it with the No Days Off Nation here today. So first principles thinking, what is it? First principles thinking is a problem-solving approach, a reasoning approach that involves breaking down rather complex problems into the bare basics, the fundamentals, the foundational truths, or the foundational principles. So instead of relying on comparison or an analogy or conventional wisdom, First principles thinking encourages us to question all assumptions, to understand the most essential elements of a problem from the, from the ground up. The first, the term first principles actually comes from philosophy and it comes from, from physics. In philosophy, first principles are the, the very basic self-evident foundations of philosophy, these foundations from which further reasoning are constructed, you know, is constructed. In physics, first principles refer to the fundamental irreducible elements from which more complex things are constructed. So in practical terms, first principles thinking involves the following, right? First, we have assumptions. We've got to identify assumptions. So we've got to recognize and deconstruct assumptions that are oftentimes taken for granted. Once we've identified the assumptions, we can truly break— start to break down the problem. So step 2 in first principles thinking, if step 1 is identify assumptions, step 2 would be breaking down the problem. We break down the problem into the most basic components and we focus on the core principles involved. Then lastly, step 3 is reconstruct from the ground up. Build a solution, build an understanding by starting at the foundation, at the fundamental principles, and reconstruct the problem or reconstruct the concept in a new way. Let's go through an example here, right? I've been, I've been high on Elon Musk as of late because, well, I just read his biography by Walter Isaacson, and I've always, always been a fan of Elon. And the way that he operates. I don't know if I necessarily want to work for him, but the way his mind works is fascinating, right? So when we think about Elon, the entrepreneur, Elon has used first principles thinking in virtually everything that he does. For example, with SpaceX, in developing SpaceX, instead of accepting the cost of rockets as a given. He broke down the components of the rockets and the costs to the very fundamental principles, which led to more innovation and more cost-effective solutions. So to go back a little bit in the story, Elon says, I want to develop a rocket. He goes and talks to, you know, these rocket manufacturers, specifically in Russia. When you go study, when you go read his book, you'll hear more about the story. And he's quoted a price and he's like, "Well, wait a second. I'm not going to accept the high cost of this rocket, certainly not as a given." So he breaks down the rocket into all the various components, and he thinks through all of the costs of the fundamental, you know, basis of the rocket itself, the principles of the rocket itself. And as a result, he recreates from the ground up a rocket of his own that was far more cost-effective. This idea of first principles thinking for Elon encouraged creativity and innovation and deeper understanding of problems by going well beyond just the surface level solutions, by going well beyond the status quo. As a matter of fact, he challenged and he questions the status quo. So he got to the root of the issue. So the question you should be asking yourself, how does this apply in my world today? My guess is that we all have challenges in business or in personal on a daily basis, if not daily, weekly, but odds are it's daily. And we're very quick to make a decision or cast judgment or make a decision, or I should say around an approach that we think we ought to take. Before we actually break down the challenge or the problem to the finest details. If we're going to use first principles thinking, and let's say we're having a business creation problem, again, lead generation, we're not creating enough opportunities for our salespeople. Let's say if I'm going to use first principles thinking, I got to identify the assumptions I'm making. What are the assumptions that I may be making that are oftentimes taken for granted? One assumption I see oftentimes is, well, my people are probably saying the right thing, or my people are probably making the calls, or my people are probably doing everything that I've asked of them. And that may not be an assumption all the time, but you see my point. Question every assumption. When I talked the other day about Elon's algorithm, Step number 1 was question everything. Well, here, here we go again. Deconstruct assumptions. So if we have a sales problem, let's assume nothing. Let's go do some research. Now, once we've analyzed all of these assumptions and proved them to be true or false, once we've deconstructed them, now let's further break down the problem. Let's get it to its most basic components. We have a sales problem. We are not generating enough business. What's the most basic components around that? Things like what time are people showing up? What kind of energy do they have? What's our education like? What item of value are, are we providing? What's our tonality? What's our body language when we're presenting? What sort of accountability do we have around follow-up? How are we delivering on follow-up? What's the customer or prospect experiencing on their end? And I could keep going down this line, continuing to break down the problem using first principles thinking. Though ultimately, after doing all this research, after breaking down the problem, now I can reconstruct from the ground up. Okay, how should we walk in the office in the morning? How do I walk in? How do I get to my desk? What's my energy level? What time am I arriving there? What are my peers doing? Okay, now that I'm there, what's the next step? How do I set the stage for a successful day? What does my time management look like? What's my call list look like? You see what I'm saying? Reconstruct it all from the ground up. This is first principles thinking. It makes me think about John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, who at the start of every season, what did he do? It was insane that he would do this, but he did it. He would have all of his team year in and year out, day one of basketball practice, The greatest basketball coach, by the way, of all time. He would teach his players how to tie their shoes so that their feet would not get blistered. Literally, he would take these college athletes, greatest athletes in the nation, and on day one of basketball, instead of running plays and doing all the, all the, all the activities you typically would do at a basketball practice, he starts by showing his guys how to put their shoes on properly. Now that we have our shoes on properly, we won't blister. Because we won't blister, we'll be able to participate at a full level all of the time. That is first principles thinking at its finest. So how might this apply to you today? What problems do you have? What decisions were you about to make in order to correct those problems that now you're going to pause and reflect on your assumptions and break down the problem further and then reconstruct from the ground up? How can you go about applying this in your world right now? That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.