First Principles Thinking as a Tool to Come Up with Possible Explanations: How Were the Pyramids of Giza Built?

Alexander Verkerk • June 16, 2021

Photo by Hossam M. Omar

First principles thinking can be used for several purposes, ranging from coming up with innovative solutions to contextualising your research and making decisions. The potential of this technique is far reaching, but several of its applications are underexposed. This article provides you with practical insights on another way in which the technique can be helpful: generating potential explanations (hypotheses). The example of finding out how the pyramids of Giza were built is used for illustration purposes and may not always be underpinned by fully accurate assumptions. 

Keywords: First principles thinking, hypothesis generation, explaining, pyramid building, Giza, Egypt

First principles thinking and generating hypotheses

Have you ever looked at the pyramids of Giza and wondered: how could such incredible structures be built around 4,500 years ago? 

Many historians have immersed themselves into this question, and they have come up with several potential explanations for each of the challenges that needed to be overcome. One such challenge concerns the transportation of the pyramid’s material from nearby quarries to the pyramid’s construction site, as each block is estimated to weigh about 2,268 kilograms (2.5 tonnes) on average (Markings, 2017). How were they transported to the construction site?

I’m not sure what process historians followed to come up with hypotheses, but I can imagine that first principles thinking (FPT)—being a technique that guides you to systematically come up with new solutions by way of reverse-engineering a challenge into scientific fundamental truths and from there reasoning up to discover new solutions—could offer useful guidance for such an exercise. Instead of looking for solutions you look for hypotheses.

How exactly? By pretending to be a ‘first principles thinking’ pharaoh in Egypt around 2,500 BC with the ambition to build such a polyhedron-shaped mortuary temple in Giza. Once incarnated, we would follow a similar process as the first principles thinking steps outlined in the First Principles Thinking Manual (2019) to realise this ambition, while using the knowledge we now have in retrospect. 

Note that this pharoah probably did not start from scratch, as pyramids such as the Bent Pyramid and Djoser's Step Pyramid were built earlier on, which in turn might also have been pre-dated by similar structures such as Mesopotamian ziggurats. However, let’s pretend the pharaoh and his architects wanted to create something new as opposed to copying existing structures. 

Follow the first principles thinking steps

First principles thinking seems to be most suitable for concrete and demarcated challenges. So we'll have to break down the bigger challenge of building such a pyramid altogether into smaller challenges, such as transporting (components of) large stones from nearby quarries to the construction site. Now let’s apply the first principles thinking steps. 

Step 1: Identify your objective

Transforming the challenge into an objective statement that captures what needs to be done, for whom and in which locality would look something like this:

  • Transport the building material from nearby quarries to the construction site in Giza.

Step 2: List the obstacles

The main obstacles in the way of the objective would be:

  • The stones are heavy.
  • The stone blocks need to be transported from quarries just outside the pyramid construction site.

Step 3: Question your assumptions

Now let’s question the assumptions underlying each obstacle by way of asking fundamental Socratic questions. This is a truth-finding method that questions the validity of one’s beliefs and assumptions in a disciplined, rigorous and thoughtful manner.

  • Are those stones really heavy? How much do they weigh exactly? How much deadweight can a human carry? How many people would it take? What animals are present to help out? What makes them heavy? Do they need to be carried at all? Is there an alternative? Could the weight temporarily be reduced for transportation? What are the stones made of exactly? Could these ingredients be decomposed and reassembled at the construction site? Is it really far away? How far away is it exactly by land, water, etc.? Can’t the departure point and destination meet halfway?

Step 4: Uncover some first principles

To get to the core of the obstacles—the very first principles—we need to try to answer these questions, ideally in a way that is supported by scientific evidence, but otherwise intuition or a search engine query will do for now. 

  • Each stone weighs approximately 2,268 kilograms (nearly 2.5 tonnes) (Markings, 2017). A person in good physical condition could potentially lift about 210% of their body weight (Sifferman, 2017), let’s say about 160 kilograms (0.18 tonnes) of deadweight, and push or pull about 45 kilograms (0.045 tonnes) of horizontal force for a short period of time (Load Mover Inc, 2012). It would take at least 14 people to vertically pull up such a stone, or 56 people to push or pull such a stone, but probably more considering the additional weight caused by friction between the stones and surface. Lions and hippos were around at the time to potentially help out (Mark, 2016). Camels were only introduced many years after the pyramids were built (Saber,1998). Instead of quarrying and transporting the stones, they could be (partially) assembled using an early form of concrete: a mixture of limestone, clay, lime and water (Berninger & Rose, 2007). The stones were possibly quarried at the Giza Plateau (Ancient Egypt Research Associates, n.d.), which seems to be either at or within a few kilometers from the pyramid construction site.

Step 5: Come up with hypotheses

In a regular FPT exercise you would look at the first principles and ask how-questions to come up with new ideas, such as “How can we reduce the friction between stones and surface?”. If nothing comes to mind you could ask some more questions, such as “What creates friction exactly?”, and find that this is due to the roughness of the surfaces (this is another first principle). A logical how-question would then be: “How can we reduce such roughness?” And then think of the idea to polish the rough surfaces, lubricate them or create the possibility of rolling friction as opposed to sliding friction. “What materials did the Egyptians have at their disposal to make this happen?” Stones to polish, water to lubricate and tree logs to create rolling friction? Indeed, reducing friction can surely be (part of) a possible explanation. 

The question “How could the components of a large stone necessary to build the pyramid be transported and then be assembled at the construction site?” might furthermore generate the idea to transport these ingredients in smaller quantities and then assemble them on site. However, knowing retroactively that the stones may indeed have consisted of different components that were cemented unnaturally, we can already confidently hypothesise that these stones were assembled on site, which actually makes the obstacles of the stones being heavy and located outside of the construction site. However, it is a plausible hypothesis nonetheless. 

Our goal is achieved; we have arrived at two reasonable hypotheses:

  • The Egyptians used stones to polish, water to lubricate and tree logs to create rolling friction in order to ease transportation of the stone blocks.
  • The Egyptians brought limestone, clay, lime and water in smaller quantities and assembled them into building blocks on site.

Step 6: Validate your hypotheses

In a regular FPT exercise you would now refine your ideas. Something similar can be done in this context, namely assessing their plausibility by going through a few more rounds of FPT:

  • Where would the stones, water and logs to ease transportation come from exactly? How many logs and how much water would be necessary to help transport all of the large stones? Were they available in these quantities? 
  • Would it be possible to extract smaller quantities of limestone, clay and water? How could these components be transported? How many rounds and people would be necessary? Did they need to cross rough terrain such as a river or hill? 
  • Is there any evidence of construction and transportation practices, for example in the form of tomb paintings?

Ideally you would be able to get some answers (first principles) and select which hypotheses are most plausible, based on their practical feasibility and effectiveness to overcome the aforementioned obstacles. I will, however, stop here as I don’t have the resources to seek further answers. 

Conclusion

This article presents an approach to hypothesis generation through the lens of first principles thinking. The key to this approach is to (1) turn an observed outcome or variable into an objective, after which you would (2) identify obstacles to achieve the objective, (3) question your assumptions regarding these obstacles, (4) answer these questions to identify first principles, (5) ask how-questions to come up with possible hypotheses and, finally, (6) validate your hypotheses by asking some more critical questions. As the illustration of pyramid building shows, this process has potential to result in some solid hypotheses, or elements thereof. 

A search engine query actually showed that others had also come up with these hypotheses, alongside several others (Ammar, 2014). Did they use FPT? Perhaps in some way, as critical thinking and fact checking underlying traditional hypothesis generation is also fundamental to first principles thinking. Nevertheless, hopefully this article gave you some insights to structure your search for possible explanations, for example when your work or hobby involves empirical research (e.g. process tracing) or investigation (e.g. police work).

References

Apply first principles thinking yourself?

Would you like to apply first principles thinking yourself and have your problem-solving experience published in the First Principles Thinking Review? Then be sure to check out the submission guidelines and send us your rough idea or topic proposal. Our editorial team would be happy to work with you to turn that idea into an article. 

Submission guidelines

Share this page

Disclaimer : The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in submissions published by FIPS reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views held by FIPS, the FIPS team or the authors' employer.


Copyrights : You are more than welcome to share this article. If you want to use this material, for example when writing an article of your own, keep in mind that we use cc license BY-NC-SA. Learn more about the cc license here .

What's new?

FIPS Releases New Edition of “First Principles Thinking Manual”

FIPS Releases New Edition of “First Principles Thinking Manual”

By Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions • November 6, 2024
Five years after the first edition, we are happy to announce a new edition of the First Principles Thinking Manual: How to Generate Innovative Solutions to Today’s Societal Challenges. Drawing on your feedback, a number of workshops and article contributions, this updated edition offers new theoretical insights and practical examples for anyone looking to apply first principles thinking in their work.
Using First Principles Thinking to Solve Our Hiring Heroes Problem in the United States

Using First Principles Thinking to Solve Our Hiring Heroes Problem in the United States

By Eric A. Wright, PhD • December 15, 2023
The challenge of reintegrating a nation-state’s military veteran back into its civilian workforce has persisted since the time of Caesar Augustus in Rome circa 13 BC. Therefore, it is time to innovate on this millennia-old communications problem and solve it, at least in the US, and First Principles Thinking is a time-tested problem-solving technique. The first step in applying the power of first principles thinking is to break the veteran hiring problem down into its seven fundamental elements, what Aristotle called first principles, to accurately define it. Then we can use five applicable philosophical razors to separate, i.e., shave off, our extant assumptions from the identified first principles to clear our clouded current thinking. Doing so then allows us to reassemble the first principles in a new way, creating an innovative solution to veteran hiring through first principles thinking, which we can implement, at least in the United States, using nine proven tools and techniques.

FIPS Releases its First Principles Thinking Review (Volume 3 / Issue 1)

By Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions • August 23, 2022
The Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions is proud to present you with the second volume of the First Principles Thinking Review. In the spring of 2020, we launched this publication with the aim of creating a space to host an international and interdisciplinary conversation about tackling societal challenges with first principles thinking. Over the past several months, a number of returning and first-time authors from different backgrounds and walks of life have contributed their thought-provoking ideas to the Review. In the following pages, you will learn about the role of first principles in the scientific method and how they shape the process from coming up with possible explanations, or hypotheses, to generating theories. Furthermore, you will see how first principles thinking can be applied to a wide array of challenges, from fighting homelessness to evaluating business opportunities. Finally, you will be granted an exclusive preview of state-of-the-art research being conducted on FPT.

“First Principles” by Thomas E. Ricks: A Book Review

By Kacper Grass • August 13, 2022
This review article provides a brief summary and analysis of First Principles by Thomas E. Ricks, in which the author explores how classical philosophy and first principles thinking influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. The review also highlights how the author’s own political thinking draws on first principles and concludes by summarizing some of the strengths and shortcomings of his recent work.

First Principles Thinking as a Collaborative Effort to Bring Hope to a Troubled Neighbourhood

By Alexander Verkerk, Kacper Grass & Tom Kortenbach • January 9, 2022
This article presents the first principles thinking process as a collaborative effort undertaken by three problem-solvers from the Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions. In response to the challenge of improving living conditions in the Jan Luykenlaan neighbourhood of The Hague in the Netherlands, the team demonstrates how individually generated ideas can be synthesised in order to produce original approaches to achieving a common goal.

Can First Principles Thinking Spur Creative Ideas About Peace?

By Cate Griffiths • December 12, 2021
Does the language we use to talk about peace prevent peace? Defining peace in terms of conflict and violence seems to restrict peace-related activities to matters requiring negotiation, conflict resolution and violence prevention, and to evoke delimited emotional responses. I sense that new ideas about peace could only come from a systematic, first principles approach to a topic that is accepted as a social good but rarely examined this way. Perhaps such an exercise would strip back the concept to reveal the root experiences, behaviors and emotions we point to when we say, ‘this is peace’. I hope that by identifying the first principles of peace it might generate creative ideas to enable a new perception of peace, beyond the absence of violence, and that could be used to effectively promote peace.

The Role of First Principles Thinking in Singapore’s Nation-Building

By Zhennan Low • October 9, 2021
Upon becoming an independent city-state in 1965, Singapore had to overcome the challenges of nation-building in a small but culturally and ethnically diverse territory. In his search for solutions, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), the country’s founding father, employed first principles thinking as a societal problem-solving technique. By identifying three first principles at the root of his challenge, LKY was able to overcome the obstacles of nation-building and lay the foundations for a cohesive and prosperous society in Singapore.
Unsplash - Using First Principles Thinking in Marketing How I Generated Media Attention to Help Feed

Using First Principles Thinking in Marketing: How I Generated Media Attention to Help Feed the Homeless

By Klint Ciriaco • August 2, 2021
In this article, I expand on my experiences of using first principles thinking in the field of marketing (Ciriaco, 2020). I begin by comparing first principles thinking to reasoning by analogy before providing an outline of the method’s fundamental steps. I then share a personal case study that illustrates how first principles thinking helped me find a way to get a nonprofit organization TV coverage with zero budget. The article concludes with a discussion of when it is and is not most advantageous to use first principles thinking in your work.
First Principles Thinking Review (Volume 2 / Issue 1) by the Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions

FIPS Releases its First Principles Thinking Review (Volume 2 / Issue 1)

By Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions • June 30, 2021
The Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions is proud to present you with the second volume of the First Principles Thinking Review. In the spring of 2020, we launched this publication with the aim of creating a space to host an international and interdisciplinary conversation about tackling societal challenges with first principles thinking. Over the past several months, a number of returning and first-time authors from different backgrounds and walks of life have contributed their thought-provoking ideas to the Review. In the following pages, you will learn about the role of first principles in the scientific method and how they shape the process from coming up with possible explanations, or hypotheses, to generating theories. Furthermore, you will see how first principles thinking can be applied to a wide array of challenges, from fighting homelessness to evaluating business opportunities. Finally, you will be granted an exclusive preview of state-of-the-art research being conducted on first principles thin
First Principles Thinking Innovation Kmar Hachicha Factory for Innovative Policy Solutions

What I Discovered Writing a Thesis on First Principles Thinking: An Interview with Kmar Hachicha

By Kmar Hachicha and the FIPS Team • June 20, 2021
In the following interview, Kmar Hachicha, a graduate student from the Technical University of Brunswick, offers the FIPS Team and its readers a unique insight into her novel research on first principles thinking as an innovation process. In the conversation that follows, she tells us about her thesis project, what she discovered as well as her experiences working with first principles thinking.
Show More