🌱 First Principles

break down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up

The coach reasons from first principles. The rules of football are the first principles: they govern what you can and can’t do. Everything is possible as long as it’s not against the rules.

The play stealer works off what’s already been done. Sure, maybe he adds a tweak here or there, but by and large he’s just copying something that someone else created.

play stealer as the person who reasons by analogy, and the coach as someone who reasons by first principles

To understand is to know what to do.

after one or two questions, we are often lost. We actually don’t know why. Confronted with our own ignorance, we resort to self-defense.

boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, “okay, what are we sure is true?” … and then reason up from there. That takes a lot more mental energy.

the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.

The iPhone wasn’t first, it was better. Microsoft wasn’t the first to sell operating systems; it just had a better business model.

Sometimes the early bird gets the worm and sometimes the first mouse gets killed