1. First Principles: Why Grandma Cut the Ham (And What It's Costing You)

Three generations. One ham. Zero reason to keep cutting off the end—except "that's how we've always done it." Sound familiar? This is the trap most entrepreneurs fall into, and it's costing you more than you think.

In this episode, we break down first principles thinking—the mental framework behind SpaceX's 90% cost reduction, NVIDIA's AI dominance, and Netflix's transformation from DVD mailers to streaming giant. You'll learn how to strip away inherited assumptions and rebuild your business from the ground up.

What You'll Learn:

1. Why Elon Musk got laughed out of the room (and proved everyone wrong)
2. The 5-step framework for applying first principles to YOUR business
3. How Netflix abandoned a billion-dollar business model at its peak—on purpose
4. Jensen Huang's weekend pivot that saved NVIDIA from irrelevance

Timestamps:

1. 00:00 – The $175 million question
2. 01:55 – Elon Musk's $65 million wake-up call
3. 04:14 – The ham story (and why it matters)
4. 06:38 – My first business failure (and what I'd do differently)
5. 08:48 – SpaceX's near-bankruptcy and breakthrough
6. 11:21 – NVIDIA: From gaming GPUs to AI backbone
7. 15:42 – Netflix's first principles pivot
8. 20:25 – The 5-step framework you can use today
9. 27:26 – Your challenge: Pick one assumption to question

Key Quotes:

1. "Think of yourself to decide what you want, what is true, and what you should do to achieve the first in light of the second." – Ray Dalio
2. "We implemented the graphics pipeline in a way nobody had done before and built something the world had never seen." – Jensen Huang

Resources Mentioned:

1. Liftoff by Eric Berger (SpaceX story)
2. Principles by Ray Dalio

Challenge: Pick ONE assumption in your industry that nobody questions. Break it down. Ask: Why is it done this way? What's the fundamental goal? How would I approach it from scratch?

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