Use the 5 Whys technique to find root causes instead of treating symptoms. The speaker traces why batteries are expensive through five layers: mining costs, supplier reliance, historical practices, and fragmented supply chains reveal the real problem.
Chapters
And so I always use first principles thinking when I have a really hairy problem, any problem to be honest. Yeah, so you always go to the root of the problem. What is this problem? Just ask why 5 times. So why does this problem exist? Oh, because— so why are batteries so expensive? Because we need to mine them from Africa and then we need to get this company to bring it over. Why? Why do we need to mine it from Africa and get this company for Kumaguro? Oh, because that's how it's always been done. Why has it always been done like that? I don't know, people did think to vertically integrate and own the whole supply chain. Why didn't it? Is it too complex? Oh, maybe. So you ask why 5 times and you get to the root of any issue.