I regularly see and hear people suggest that ‘thinking from first principles’ is a great thing, a foundation of success. Often when these people are flogging a product or service of some sort, their offering somehow becomes a function of a first principle.
‘This marketing automation stack is built from first principles‘ is a claim made by a vendor to an acquaintance who runs a modest but long-lived SME. The business is constrained by IT limitations of various types. A combination of lack of cash, underdeveloped understanding of the tools available and how they work both individually and together, and general wariness about florid claims about the returns that will arrive, magically, on installation,
What should we mean by ‘first principles’?
Aristotle defined it as ‘The first basis from which a thing is known’. Philosophers since have added their own wrinkles, but it comes down to the few single facts that provide the foundation of whatever idea you are considering. When you break a problem down to this level, it enables you to, sometimes, reassemble from a different set of possibilities, ideas from different fields, and end up with something new.
Thinking from first principles is challenging.
Our brains have evolved to reduce the cognitive load as a survival mechanism. Fight or flight must kick in quickly, automatically, just in case the rustle in the weeds is a sabre-toothed tiger. We therefore have mental models, or patterns we use unconsciously to classify things we see and set out to think about. Even when we set about thinking carefully, we are still subject to the mental models we have built up, the analogies and experiences we have that enable us to respond with the minimum of cognitive energy.
John Boyd used the evolution of the snowmobile as a demonstration of ‘First principles’. A snowmobile combines the body of a boat, the tracks of a tank, motor and controls of a motor bike, and skis, to deliver a machine that gives mobility on the snow. Similarly, Elon Musk used first principles to build his own rockets for SpaceX. He broke up a rocket into its component parts, then built his own rockets with parts sourced independently. Musk’s whole business empire is based on reimagining something and rebuilding from first principles. Arthur Conan Doyle via his character Sherlock Holmes, advocated the same approach. ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth‘. William of Ockham in the 14th century wrote similar words that have been passed down as the wisdom of Occam’s razor.
When you apply this thinking to marketing, and consideration of what it is that makes a successful business, you come down to one simple first principal.
Happy customers, who willingly and spontaneously refer you to others.
When you have happy customers, little else matters beyond a competitive capability to supply the product or service at a competitive price that returns an industry average gross margin.
What are the first principles of your business model?
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