Systems Thinking Ep. 3 - Mastering First Principles
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
🗝️ Conventional wisdom may be wrong, and post-modernism challenges the idea that our knowledge and wisdom are solely based on cultural foundations.
💰 By reusing rockets, SpaceX has not only saved millions of dollars but also reduced the amount of rocket engines lost forever in the ocean.
🤔 Questioning the academic establishment and challenging conventional wisdom allows for new perspectives and discoveries.
🧠 Our beliefs and assumptions are heavily influenced by familial, cultural, and educational factors, often leading us to default back to these ingrained memories even when we know better.
🐠 Stepping outside of our own perspective allows us to see how different our world can be from others, leading to a greater understanding of diverse perspectives.
🌍 Looking at human morality and ethics through the lens of evolution, neuroscience, and economic theory can help make sense of morality in a more comprehensive way.
Foundational Approaches to Thinking
🧠 First principles thinking is a foundational approach that involves unpacking how one's own brain works to articulate ideas clearly.
🧠 Epistemics, the theory of knowledge, plays a crucial role in first principles thinking as it helps us understand how we acquire knowledge and determine what we truly know.
🔄 When you reverse engineer your current beliefs based on historical events and personal history, many things become clear.
🧠 Cross-pollination of ideas and avoiding over-specialization can lead to first principles thinking and prevent weaknesses caused by siloed or insular thinking.
