How to Use the First Principles Mental Model to Unlock Unstoppable Creativity

What’s holding you back from having world-changing big ideas? There’s a major roadblock on your creativity superhighway: learning.

Hold on, don’t drop out of grad school just yet. Hear me out.

When we face problems, we are usually stuck thinking about them based on what we’ve learned. Our past experiences dictate how we approach this new situation.

But there is another, better way to do this: work from first principles.

First-principles are the fundamental aspects of a situation. In a game of chess, the rules are the first-principles. In a painting, the way colors mix. In an economy — well there are heated debates about those first-principles.

When we solve problems starting at first principles, we don’t know where it will take us. Imagine getting caught in a rainstorm. You might run to find shelter. Through experience (or learning), you start looking for shelter whenever you feel that first raindrop. But at some point in history, somebody used first principles. They saw it isn’t a cave or a tree or a house that keeps you dry — it’s a barrier between you and the rain. Make a barrier that can be carried, and what do you have? An umbrella.

Attack Assumptions

Assumptions are built in explanations for how things work. They might be based in part on experience, but they are also based on received wisdom from others.

These are the blocks to first principles. Whenever you find them, attack them. Show no mercy.

There used to be an assumption that phones were for calling and, later, texting people. Then, engineers stopped assuming that and began putting in more features. Since cell phones were just little computers, what else could they do? This eventually led to the smartphone, something that’s become a core part of people’s day (for better and worse).

Ask “Why” Questions

The beauty of “why” is that each time we ask it, we dig down to a level closer to first principles.

Usually, you need to ask “why” a few more times than you think you should. Think of all those conversations you’ve had with your kids — where a question about a t-shirt ends up in a complex discussion about the nature of color and the social implications of fashion. Kids are zen masters of Why.

Ask the Dumbest Questions

This is similar to the previous tip, but it’s a bit more rough-and-ready. Asking dumb questions is all about avoiding your assumptions.

Of course, not all truly dumb questions are valuable. When thinking about the quality of a film, you don’t need to ask how to spell the word “film.” Rather, a good dumb question about a film might go something like this. If someone says a movie is great because of the plot, ask how a plot can make a movie better or worse.

Now, you aren’t just agreeing or disagreeing about the quality of the plot, you are talking about the fundamental principles of narrative filmmaking. All it took was one dumb question.

Be brave — ask the dumb question.