Reflection: One of the things for which Musk is celebrated is his application of first principles thinking. However, in respect of what he is doing to the American government, he is applying the opposite. 🧵1/x
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Musk: “I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing… 2/x
… [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.”
DOGE is applying to the US fedgov, by analogy, Musk’s approach to company management. What someone else (he) has done. If reasoning at all, it’s horizontally, into a foreign context. 3/x
More broadly, his enablers, celebrators and copycats-in-waiting in other jurisdictions are applying their interpretations of effective company management and applying it to government(s). This is the antithesis of first principles thinking and intervention. 4/x
What’s available to others, observing from elsewhere, is to apply EXACTLY what Elon otherwise espouses: Be curious. Do independent research. Talk to those who preceded you & ask what they would do differently. Be courageous. Buck norms. Experiment.
Yes, bottom up depends upon a complete understanding of the logic chain. In most human interactions we have partial information at best. We also learn from observations of existing systems. Empiricism is good, but we can't assume we understand mechanisms perfectly.
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DOGE is applying to the US fedgov, by analogy, Musk’s approach to company management. What someone else (he) has done. If reasoning at all, it’s horizontally, into a foreign context. 3/x
There is better governance available…that way 5/5