Reasoning From First Principles in Disruptive Entrepreneurship

Re:Reasoning From First Principles in Disruptive Entrepreneu... by narrator on Tuesday October 15, 2013 @02:21PM (#6555260)

If you don't reason from first principles you can only come up with ideas that are slight derivations of existing ideas. If you reason from first principles you can come up with completely new ideas that have never been tried before. If you continue this process you don't have to worry about people stealing your ideas because you'll come up with so much stuff that you'll never run out of new things to try.

The one problem with reasoning from first principles is it becomes hard for anyone to judge your ideas and give you feedback before you try them. You have to be able to check yourself because most people, when introduced to a novel idea will think "Sounds like a good theory" and shrug their shoulders because they can't compare it to anything similar in their personal knowledge base.

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Re:Reasoning From First Principles in Disruptive Entrepreneu... by jww1117 on Tuesday October 15, 2013 @03:16PM (#6555659)

I completely agree. I come up with a lot of ideas and mention them to family/friends and 9 times out of ten the first thing they say about it is a huge obstacle or that it isn't feasible. I've always thought it was interesting that a majority of people, when presented a new idea, tend to go with the "Sounds like a good theory" reaction than imagining that it can be possible. That is why I admire Elon, in the face of all the critics that say it isn't possible he makes it possible.

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Re:Reasoning From First Principles in Disruptive Entrepreneu... by RodericDay on Tuesday October 15, 2013 @08:32PM (#6557304)

I think it's interesting that when talking about apps, people take this perspective. When talking about economics and social justice, the same people are quite reactionary.

In my experience, of course.

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