Elon Musk is a well-known proponent of first principles thinking. His best-known explanation of reasoning from first principles is in this interview with Kevin Rose. The basic idea is that you ignore basic assumptions as popular opinion. Instead of reasoning by analogy, which will lead you to make something slightly better, you get to the…
The Learning Log
Failed Experiment: A Weekly Pre-set Schedule
A couple of months ago I wrote about creating a schedule for myself like a student’s schedule at college. The idea was to dedicate 30 minutes of time each week to one of my important but not urgent priorities and strategies for the year. This did not work. Here is what my pre-set schedule looked…
Take More Shots
“My goal is to make four baskets,” my daughter proudly announced to me before her second 3rd grade basketball game. This would be a pretty audacious goal considering it was only her second game ever and the final scores of her games do not tend to be very high. My wife offered another suggestion: “How…
Writing Lessons from My Editor
Last week I returned a manuscript with a number of changes requested by my editor. Responding to her comments and questions made me a better writer. Here are some of the things I learned from her about my writing habits: What works online may not work in print. I have a lot of bad blogging…
Long-term Oriented Thinking about Projects
I heard Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, say something interesting about the projects he is working on. When someone congratulates him on a good fiscal quarter, he thanks them but it doesn’t really make much of an impact on him. The results from this quarter were already determined by the work he did three years…
