The First Principles of Living
In the technology world, people often talk about first principles as the crux of true innovation. It’s a term that Elon Musk lives and breathes by and has become one of the key frameworks that people use to solve interesting and difficult problems in the world. That said, I’ve found that one of the most powerful use cases of first principles is in our day-to-day lives and personal goal setting. It’s shifted the way I experience life from heavy and shameful to one of lightness and curiosity.
According to Musk on first principles: I think generally people’s thinking process is too bound by convention or analogy to prior experiences. It’s rare that people try to think of something on a first principles basis. They’ll say, “We’ll do that because it’s always been done that way.” Or they’ll not do it because “Well, nobody’s ever done that, so it must not be good.” But that’s just a ridiculous way to think. You have to build up the reasoning from the ground up — “from the first principles” is the phrase that’s used in physics. You look at the fundamentals and construct your reasoning from that, and then you see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn’t work, and it may or may not be different from what people have done in the past.
As I used first principles during the early stages of Moringa School to build it up, I realized that I almost exclusively applied first principles to my work life, designing and iterating on a solution to a massive problem. COVID has been a massive time for reflection and a step back for humanity and a key area I’ve reflected on is how to apply the first principles that have worked for me at work into my personal life, goals, and day-to-day experience.
Before COVID, I looked outside of myself for answers (in the plethora of advice articles or self-help books) instead of trusting that I can learn and develop the answers within myself. Through first principles, I’ve learned that I can apply new data from additional life experiences to confirm or deny my various hypotheses. And that I could treat my personal goals more with curiosity than judgment (for not doing things the right way or achieving the right results).
For example, in my relationship with food, I combined ‘What’s the ONE THING I can do with food to feel more energized such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?’ to identify my practice. And then, rather than making the answer a fact, I turned it into a hypothesis.
If I eat whole, unprocessed foods for 30 days, then I will feel more energized, because whole foods is what my body needs for energy.
The mistake I made was testing too many variables at once. In August, I tested 1) eating whole foods 2) with intermittent fasting 3) with counting calories and I unintentionally lost almost 5 pounds. But it was difficult for me to know which of the 3 new habits was additive or subtractive from my energy levels (as I stooped below a healthy weight). In September, I stopped calorie counting and applied less stringent measures on eating whole foods, and focused more on intermittent fasting and I learned the additive effects of fasting. And each month, I’ve vowed to test just one new thing in my various areas of importance: food, exercise, sleep, spirituality/mindfulness, friends, family.
Experiencing my personal life through first principles has created the freedom and curiosity I was seeking in personal development before. Rather than feeling bad every time I missed a new habit, I’ve learned that through experimentation, the logging of data, and reflection, I’ve taken my own personal shame or guilt out of new habits and brought in a plethora of lightness and ease. Not every ‘healthy’ activity works for everyone and the point is to listen to my body, reflect and see what works for me, not what others tell me what works for them.
Freedom is to live without the fear of one’s own judgement and first principles has given me the agency and freedom I’ve been seeking.
