PLAYER ONE
BEGIN
The sentence the tree is built on
January 2015. Someone asks Elon how he learns so fast. He does not say “genius.” He draws a tree.
It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree. Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.
Kevin Rose, Foundation, September 2012. First principles is a physics way of looking at the world. Boil things down to the most fundamental truths, then reason up. Battery packs were said to cost $600 per kilowatt-hour because they always had. The materials, on the London Metal Exchange, were about $80.
Hangs on First principles
Trunk and big branches first. Leaves later, or they fall. That is the whole method of this tree.
You do not need to love him, or games, or 42, to test the rule. You only need a subject you have been trying to hang details on without a trunk.
The next rooms grow that sentence into a map of documented relationships: physics, writing, games, simulation, consciousness, and only then, if you want, a layer of play.
- First principlesBoil a thing to what is actually true, then reason up. The trunk is not a vibe. It is the set of facts a leaf is allowed to hang on.
- The semantic treeKnowledge has a shape. Trunk and big branches first; leaves later, or they fall.