🍎 Seeing the apple or the whole tree

January 9, 2023 · 3 min read · Lukas Zangerl

👋 Hello friend,

If you haven’t yet, I 100% recommend reading the latest post: 7 mind-bending questions to ask yourself to achieve your personal goals in 2023 (from a Tony Robbins result coaching).

Now let’s take a look at this week’s topic:

Do you know that kind of people walking around like newspapers, telling you the latest gossip?

They tell you things like: “It would help if you bought that; it will increase in value.” Or “If you just learned this skill now, you have a great future ahead of you.”

The problem is that people often tell you what they heard or read without questioning the underlying building blocks.

The thoughts of others imprison us if we’re not thinking for ourselves. - https://fs.blog/first-principles/

Our brain is lazy and takes the shortest route. Understanding something to its core, however, requires time and effort.

Often we tell ourselves to be under time pressure, not realizing that if we understand something to its core, we’ll save so much time in the future. It’s the difference between writing something in sand or chiseling it into hard solid rock.

When you think of an apple tree, First Principle Thinkers don’t focus on the shiny red apple hanging on the tree.

They see the whole tree and ask themselves how it came to be. They look at the roots, the trunk, and the big branches before they get into the leaves and other details.

How else will there be something to hang on to?

The difference between reasoning from first principles and reasoning by analogy is like the difference between being a chef and being a cook. If the cook lost the recipe, he’d be screwed. On the other hand, the chef understands the flavor profiles and combinations at such a fundamental level that he doesn’t even use a recipe. He has actual knowledge.
https://fs.blog/first-principles/