In an interview, Musk pointed out that most people like to attribute problems to "analogy," that is, to copy what others do and do the same thing as others.

But Musk then proposed his own way of thinking, namely "first principles," which breaks down a matter to its most basic level, starts from the essence of things, and then deduces step by step to rebuild cognition.

He used "electric vehicle batteries" as an example: for instance, everyone says that it is "only natural" for batteries to be expensive, because batteries have been expensive for a long time.

But if you start from "first principles," the question you should ask is: What are batteries actually made of? What are the real market prices of these materials (cobalt, nickel, aluminum, etc.)? Then you'll find that the value of the raw materials is far lower than you imagine, but nobody has done the math or restructured this approach.

True innovation is not just about "rephrasing" things, but about starting from the ground up and overturning old perceptions.