From Aristotle (Posterior Analytics, 4th century BCE) and René Descartes (Discourse on Method, 1637), popularized for business through Elon Musk's cost reasoning at SpaceX (2010s).
Strips a problem down to the constraints that physics, economics, or logic truly impose, then designs a solution from those constraints alone.
When to reach for it
When an inherited solution or cost structure looks fixed and the field reasons mostly by analogy to what already exists.
How it runs
- State the problem as it is currently framed.
- List the assumptions built into that framing.
- Ask of each: a law of nature, or a habit?
- Keep drilling until only real constraints remain.
- Design forward from those constraints.
- Compare the new design's costs with the original's.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Posterior Analytics, 4th century BCE
- Discourse on Method, 1637
- Popularization through SpaceX cost reasoning, 2010s