Richard Feynman:
Do your own homework. To truly use first principles, don’t rely on experts or previous work. Approach new problems with the mindset of a novice. Truly understand the fundamental data, assumptions and reasoning yourself. Be curious.
Peter Thiel (@peterthiel):
True innovation comes from discovering an important, fundamental truth that few people agree with you on — a secret. First principles thinking helps you discover secrets to achieve vertical progress (0 to 1).
Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos):
Resist proxies. Don’t mindlessly follow processes, or unquestioningly accept survey data. That is reasoning by analogy. Go out and discover fundamental truths — focus on outcomes, and real customer feedback.
The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine asked Elon Musk to get Starlink internet service to Ukraine and Elon responded 10 hours later that it was done.
Just incredible.