Knowledge Alchemy

My 3-year-old likes to ask “is it tomorrow?”, a rather perplexing question. “No, it’s never tomorrow,” I say. “Tomorrow is always the next day. Right now is all we have.”

Right now is all we have. This was the ember of a principle. And the kindling is the continual usage of the phrase, stoking the fire and bringing the core truth to life.

I found myself repeating several of these phrases last year:

• “Constraints breed creativity.”
• “Being a generalist is a superpower.”
• “Energy is more important than time.”
• “It’s all guesswork until you do the work.”
• “You see more of what you pay attention to.”

These are signals—they tell me when a principle is lurking beneath. And when you think Principles First, you notice them everywhere. They start as simple phrases you keep repeating until they build momentum and layer into your system of beliefs.

I think about this as a type of “Knowledge Alchemy”, where you start to recognize ideas (or insights), reflect on their underlying meaning, and then repeat them in your work, conversations with others, and measure them against new information.

This is the process for finding principles and integrating them into your life.

Recognize

It starts with recognition. You have to spot patterns and emerging truths. You have to find the signal through the noise. The mantra “you see more of what you pay attention to” applies here perfectly. When you start noticing patterns, you see them everywhere.

How? Absorb information: Read books, listen to podcasts, talk to interesting people. Go wide and deep. Follow your curiosity across subjects, disciplines, and domains. And when you’re really interested, go deep and integrate the knowledge more deeply to form skills.

My wife and I spent (part of) the holiday break watching all Christopher Nolan movies in chronological order. We ended with Oppenheimer, which was right at the time I was crystallizing my thinking about how to find principles (what we’re talking about here). While watching the movie, I recognized emerging truths as insights:

• Wisdom and genius are very different things.
• Vindictiveness is the slow poison of insecurity.
• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

While this movie was based on real historical figures and events, these truths are buried everywhere. You just have to pay attention. Ask yourself:

• What is the meaning behind this?
• Is there a fundamental truth at play?
• Where else have I seen something similar?

Reflect

Once you’ve recognized the patterns, take time to reflect. It’s not enough to jump to the next book, podcast, or conversation—reflect on what you learned and, most importantly, contrast it with the existing knowledge base you’ve built.

• Is it a brand new idea to explore?
• Does it conflict with an existing idea?
• What is the deeper meaning behind the idea?

The insights from Oppenheimer came to me upon reflection. I recognized the patterns while watching the movie, but reflection brought me to the core idea. A simple way to get to the core truth is to keep asking “why?” until the deeper meaning reveals itself.

Repeat

After wrestling with the meaning of the idea and simplifying it, we turn to repetition. A principle needs to stick in your mind. Distill it into a short mantra or phrase that can be easily recalled. The simpler the expression, the more likely you are to repeat it, reinforcing the insight over time.

I originally said “you don’t know the work until you do the work” and then simplified the phrasing to “it’s all guesswork until you do the work”. This is all part of the process. Find the words that distill the idea as much as you can without losing its meaning.

Find the Magic

Finding principles is about recognizing emerging patterns, reflecting on the meaning to identify the core truth, and repeating the principle as a mantra. This process builds your mental framework, aids in decision-making, and acts as a compass for your beliefs. These insights are everywhere, waiting for you to uncover them. And once you’ve made your principle stick, you now have something actionable and portable. You can put it to use and apply it in combination with all the other principles you’ve uncovered. That’s magic. That’s alchemy.