Why does disruptive innovation often originate from first principles?

Haha, this is quite an interesting question. Let me try to explain my understanding in plain language.

Think about it, most of us, when solving problems, are essentially "copying homework," or rather, "improving on existing solutions."

For example, if you wanted to build a faster horse carriage. You might think, "Can I use lighter wood? Can I give the horses some performance enhancers? Can I make the wheels rounder, with less friction?" All these thoughts revolve within the "horse carriage" framework. This is called "analogical thinking" or "empiricism," because you're referencing existing horse carriages. What you end up with, at best, is a "better horse carriage."

But there are always one or two "unconventional" people who don't think that way. They'll ask questions that sound foolish: "Wait a minute, why are we even using horse carriages?" "To get people from point A to point B faster." "So what's the essence of 'fast'? It's reducing the time from A to B." "To reduce time, fundamentally, you need a continuously outputting power source that's stronger than a horse's muscles." "What can provide such power? Boiling water produces steam, which seems to push things... Burning gasoline has explosive power, which also seems to push things..."

You see, this person didn't think about improving the horse carriage. They completely deconstructed the concept of a "horse carriage," returning to the most fundamental need – "movement," and the most basic physical principle – "energy conversion." Starting from "first principles," what they eventually tinkered out might be trains or automobiles.

Once these things appeared, the entire horse carriage industry was stunned. No matter how luxurious or fast your horse carriage was, it couldn't outrun a car. This is "disruptive innovation."

So, why does disruptive innovation often stem from first principles?

Simply put, it's because first principles allow you to think outside the existing "rules of the game."

Once an industry matures, all players within it, whether leaders or newcomers, operate within a default framework. Their innovations are what we call "incremental innovation" – for example, a phone camera upgrading from 48 megapixels to 100 megapixels, or a battery from 4000 mAh to 5000 mAh. These are important, but they won't disrupt anyone. Everyone is just competing to see whose horse carriage wheels are rounder.

But someone thinking from first principles doesn't care about your wheels at all; they're thinking, "Can I just fly there?" They break down the problem into its most fundamental elements:

• Existing Industry: We use three steps, A, B, and C, to produce product X, at a cost of 100 units.
• First Principles Thinker: My goal is to achieve the function of product X. What is the core essence of this function? It's Y. To achieve Y, what are the basic physical/chemical/mathematical principles? It's Z. Okay, based on principle Z, can I find a completely new path, for example, by completing it in just two steps, D and E? Wow, by this calculation, the cost is only 10 units.

When this new thing, costing 10 units, emerges, the old industry with its 100-unit cost is in danger.

The most classic example is Elon Musk building rockets.

• Traditional Thinking: Building rockets is too expensive; NASA buys a rocket for hundreds of millions of dollars. Let's try to reduce the cost of a certain component by 10%.
• Musk's First Principles: What are rockets made of? Aluminum alloys, titanium, copper, carbon fiber... How much do these materials cost per ton on the London Metal Exchange? He calculated that the raw material cost only accounted for 2% of the total rocket price! So where did the other 98% go? Oh, it was various complex processing, integration, testing, and labor costs. He then thought, "Can I buy the raw materials myself and assemble them into a rocket using smarter, more efficient methods? Can I make the rocket fly back and be reused, eliminating the biggest cost (the single-use rocket body)?"

The result was SpaceX, which reduced rocket launch costs by an order of magnitude, directly disrupting the entire space industry.

In summary: Without starting from first principles, you'll at best be the fastest runner in the existing race. But by starting from first principles, you might directly render that race obsolete and create an entirely new one. Disruption, naturally, follows.