🔤 What Elon Musk Gets That Most People Miss
First principles thinking, and how to do it
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“What would this look like if no one had done it before?”
That question helped Elon Musk build a rocket company.
Here’s how the story goes…
One day, Elon Musk wanted to send something to Mars.
He looked into buying rockets.
Price tag? Astronomical.
Most people would’ve stopped there.
There was no prior example of a rocket startup succeeding.
Instead, it was his differentiated thinking that led to success:
“The typical approach that people would take to how much rockets should cost, and they look historically at what the cost of rockets are and assume that any new rocket must be somewhat similar to the prior cost of rockets.
A first principles approach would be to look at the materials the rocket is comprised of.
How much does the rocket weigh?
What are the constituent elements and how much those weigh?
You realize the raw materials of a rocket are only 1 or 2% of the historical cost of a rocket.
So the manufacturing must be necessarily very inefficient, if the raw materials cost is only 1 or 2%.”
—Elon Musk
This is first principles thinking.
→ Break down assumptions to physics and truths
→ Reason up from those truths
Then SpaceX happened.
First private space venture that succeeded, when all others failed.
They didn’t copy anyone—they differentiated by asking better questions and seeking fundamental truth.
This Week’s ABC
Advice: My first principles for a busy life
Breakthrough: Elon’s recent YC talk, where he talks about first principles and more
Challenge: Think about it!
📖 Advice: First Principles x Busy Life
“To escape the illusion of knowledge, you must return to the naked truth of what you know for certain.” —James Clear
People often ask me:
“How do you decide where to spend your time?”
I have a lot going on.
It’s like my brain has 47 tabs open at once:
Executive-level day job — leading a transformation initiative across 1,600 engineers
Bootstrapping Epistemic Me — juggling sales pipeline, marketing engine, partnerships, and product work
And then the life stuff:
Health — trying to keep my health optimal, and trying to further my elite rock climbing dreams while maintaining a great longevity protocol
Family — emotional and financial support in managing the stress of my brother’s health, and recently family dog’s health and vet bills, and other not so fun family dynamics
Housing — dealing with contractors, inspectors, and an HOA for repair/remodel work
Everything else — keeping my home clean, laundry, food, and maintaining some semblance of a social life (I’m trying)
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably also of the category of people afflicted with ambition and choosing to do more—just because.
So maybe you also feel like you have 47 tabs open in your brain all the time.
Here’s how I think about my juggling, from first principles.
It leaves me feeling good about how I invest my time—for the most part (it’s a juggle after all!).
Step 1: What is the goal?
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”
— Richard Feynman
→ I want Epistemic Me to succeed.
→ To succeed, the business must grow.
→ Growth requires revenue.
→ Revenue comes from customers.
→ Customers buy value.
So—who creates that value?
We do.
Me and my Co-Founder, Jonathan.
No one else.
Step 2: Where does that value come from?
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life… and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
—Steve Jobs
Time and energy.
Time and energy applied to…
→ The insight, the code, the product design, the vision.
→ To talk to users.
→ To ship experiments.
→ To reflect, pivot, adapt.
So my time and energy must feed that core:
Build the right things
Talk to the right users
Run the right experiments
Stay radically clear-headed (or at least, try)
Step 3: What gives me time and energy?
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
—Jim Rohn
Money helps—it buys back time and reduces friction.
But I’m still bootstrapping. Until cash flow hits positive, my time and energy are limited and precious.
So I have to ask:
What else is in my control?
Health.
All of it—physical, mental, emotional.
Without it, the engine fails.
Think about it:
No health + money = broken engine
Health + no money = engine still runs
In fact, with better health, I find I have more capacity for critical reasoning and thinking.
Better health → more quality thoughts → more quality execution.
From first principles, I always keep my health number 1.
I mean, if I were dead or incapacitated in the hospital, could I work on Epistemic Me?
Could I be a good brother or son?
Of course not.
So health is number one.
The 2 Metrics That Rule My Time
“What gets measured gets managed.”
—Peter Drucker
Once that’s in place, I zoom out to where my time and energy go—specifically, toward two levers that help me as a clear mental model:
CLV: Am I increasing the value of what we deliver? (Product, insights, vision, code, outcomes)
CAC: Am I lowering the cost of getting it into the right hands? (Marketing engine, content flywheel, sales pipeline, partnerships)
All of my activities for Epistemic Me go towards furthering these two metrics at the end of the day.
I regularly review the ratio of time and energy spent, and mentally think about it from these 2 vectors.
Health first, CLV and CAC next.
The hierarchy is simple:
Health
Value creation
Value distribution
I do a weekly gut-check against these.
If it doesn’t touch Health, CLV or CAC, it’s noise.
🚀 Breakthrough: Building Rockets from First Principles
Loved this talk.
Like him or not, Elon’s mental models described here interlaced with his entrepreneurial journey were very valuable to listen to.
Some key quotes I liked:
“Don’t aspire to glory—aspire to be useful.”
“The major failure mode is when your ego-to-ability ratio exceeds 1.”
Some of my takeaways:
Useful > Great: Elon didn’t set out to be great. He just wanted to solve real problems. That’s a powerful north star in a world obsessed with optics.
Don’t outsource your thinking, think for yourself: From legacy media to NASA to VC capital, he rejected constraints that didn’t make sense. Effective people challenge default assumptions.
First principles are a superpower: Breaking complex systems into elemental truths—then reasoning up—lets you see the world a different way and solve the right problems.
I’m liking this first principles kick!
Next week I’ll write about communicating through conflict, with first principles. Stay tuned!
💥 Challenge: Think About It
And if you’re an entrepreneur—do yourself a favor and:
Look at your calendar for last week.
Mark down all the time you spent towards CLV or CAC.
Ask yourself, if this is the right ratio to achieve your goals.
Your future self will thank you.
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P.S. If you haven’t already checked out my other newsletter, ABCs for Building The Future, where I reflect on my founder’s journey building a venture in the open. Check out my learnings on product, leadership, entrepreneurship, and more—in real time!
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