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Stand out by being brief
Simplifying the pieces
These founders see the pieces in their head and rearrange them, dialing and weighting each one's importance, much like first principles thinking. They have a unique ability to simplify.
Finding the one thing
Picture the question of the three most important things right now. Cross off two of them, and one remains. The founders who stand out can say what that last one is and how they're approaching it, with a personal sense of urgency.
The one-sentence pitch
The same holds for the pitch. A company that can be described in one sentence, and explained to a child, shows a founder who is thinking to speak and not speaking to think.
Why is brief writing harder than long writing?
Blaise Pascal wrote in his Provincial Letters in 1657 that he had made a letter longer because he lacked the time to make it shorter. Brevity takes work because it forces a writer to decide what matters most and cut the rest. A long draft can leave those decisions unmade. The line is among the most often quoted remarks about editing.
How does first principles thinking work?
Aristotle described a first principle as the first basis from which a thing is known. Reasoning this way means breaking a problem into its most basic parts and rebuilding upward, instead of copying how others solved it. Physics works like this when it derives results from fundamental laws rather than from analogy. The method is slow compared with imitation, which is why it is mostly used on problems where the usual answers have stopped working.
Why does explaining to a child test understanding?
Psychologists Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil at Yale reported in 2002 on the illusion of explanatory depth. People rate their understanding of everyday objects such as zippers and toilets highly, until asked to explain step by step how they work. Their confidence drops sharply once they try. A listener who needs plain words forces the speaker through that step-by-step test.
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