I agree, it's incredibly less clear. I re-watched his TED interview and started researching different ways of determining first principles. Thought this was an interesting perspective. I found this post particularly interesting in relating first principles to software development: http://www.mytechfetish.com/2013/04/first-principle-reasonin.... I can relate with how this article states that there is more reasoning in analogy than examining processes through looking at the first principles. I just started a new job at a tech center and I finding a lot of "that's just how it's always been done" going on.

From a startup perspective, he gave an example of looking for inefficiencies in the costs of materials, which totally applies outside of physics.

(and I agree, first principles are a pain in the ass)