12: First Principles Thinking

Description

In this episode, Vikram and Subu explain the meaning of first principles, it's meaning in philosophy and science, and explore what it means to break things down into their basic constituent forms, and how that can accelerate learning. Drawing from a variety of examples from cooking, music and invention, they analyze how to think like the experts and how to become one in a field of one's choosing.

Links

• First principles and scientific theories
• Forty Second Boyd
• James Clear on First principles thinking
• The VARK questionnaire
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
• Invention of the wheeled suitcase
• 3blue1brown YouTube channel
• Neural networks
• Essence of calculus
• Wordle using Information Theory #1
• Wordle using Information Theory #2

Chapters

00:00 Intro
05:40 First Principles Defined
09:52 Ockham's Razor
14:07 Reasoning by Analogy
18:59 First Principles in Industry
21:42 Invention of the Wheeled Suitcase
24:00 Deconstruct, then reconstruct for deeper learning
34:10 Elon Musk and SpaceX
38:58 VARK Learning Model
43:31 Applying first principles learning

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Let's Get Social

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Youtube
• Website