Why Musk Says Stop Using Analogies—Embrace First Principles Thinking Instead

Ever caught yourself saying “that’s how it’s always been done”? You’re not alone. Most of us default to analogies when facing a problem—we look at what others did and simply replicate it. But Elon Musk argues this approach is precisely what holds back real breakthroughs. Instead, he champions a radically different methodology: first principles thinking.

The Trap of Analogies: Copying What Others Do

Here’s the core issue with analogies: they chain us to existing solutions. When we think by analogy, we’re essentially saying, “Company X did this, so we should do the same.” This creates an invisible ceiling on innovation. We accept inherited assumptions without questioning them. Why are batteries expensive? Because they’ve always been. Why do things work this way? Because that’s how they’ve worked.

Musk’s point is that most people like to attribute problems to analogies—copying what competitors or predecessors accomplished and replicating their approach. But this mindset perpetuates the status quo rather than challenging it.

First Principles in Action: Deconstructing EV Battery Costs

So what does first principles thinking actually look like? Musk uses electric vehicle batteries as a perfect illustration.

The conventional wisdom says batteries must be expensive—it’s a given. But if you apply first principles methodology, you ask a different set of questions: What are batteries actually made of? What’s the real market price of those raw materials?

When you drill down into the actual materials—cobalt, nickel, aluminum—you discover something surprising: the raw material value is far lower than the final product cost suggests. The high price doesn’t stem from the laws of physics or material scarcity. It comes from traditional manufacturing processes, outdated supply chain logic, and established industry practices that nobody bothered to rethink.

Once you see this gap, everything changes. You realize the expensive battery isn’t inevitable—it’s a construct that can be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up.

Breaking Free from Established Perceptions

True innovation, therefore, isn’t about tweaking existing ideas or iterating incrementally. It’s about deconstructing problems to their essence, understanding the fundamental truth beneath surface assumptions, and then rebuilding entirely. It means questioning “that’s always how it’s been” and replacing it with “what should it be?”

By abandoning analogies and embracing first principles, you unlock the potential to overturn established perceptions and reconstruct underlying systems. This shift in thinking doesn’t just apply to batteries—it applies to any industry, any challenge, any assumption you’ve inherited.