Tag: Thinking

Quotes December 26, 2017

“With what pleasure do we look upon a family, through the whole of which reign mutual love and esteem, where the parents and children are companions for one another, without any other difference than what is made by respectful affection on the one side, and kind indulgence on the other, . . .”
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
 
 
 
 
“We change, but always at a cost: to win this you lose that.”
Geoffrey Wolff, A Day at the Beach, “Apprentice”
 
 
 
 
“I love the tools made for mechanics. I stop at the windows of hardware stores. If I could only find an excuse to buy many more of them than I have already bought on the mere pretense that I might have a use for them! They are so beautiful, so simple and plain and straight to their meaning. There is no ‘Art’ about them, they have not been made beautiful, they are beautiful.”
Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
 
 
 
 
“When it’s not fun anymore, you need to start investigating and do an inquiry into the relationship.” 
 Jenny McCarthy
 
 
 
 
“Sometimes blessings come in strange packages.”
Jordan Peele
 
 
 
 
“We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack.”
Schopenhauer

James Clear – First Principles: Elon Musk on the Power of Thinking for Yourself

  • Filed under FYI

What could you make with these three things?

Imagine you have three things:

A motorboat with a skier behind it
A military tank
A bicycle

Now, let’s break these items down into their constituent parts:

Motorboat: motor, the hull of a boat, and a pair of skis.
Tank: metal treads, steel armor plates, and a gun.
Bicycle: handlebars, wheels, gears, and a seat.

What can you create from these individual parts? One option is to make a snowmobile by combining the handlebars and seat from the bike, the metal treads from the tank, and the motor and skis from the boat.

This is the process of first principles thinking in a nutshell. It is a cycle of breaking a situation down into the core pieces and then putting them all back together in a more effective way. Deconstruct then reconstruct.

First Principles: Elon Musk on the Power of Thinking for Yourself