What’s the origin story?
It’s my new favorite question (gratitude to James Healy). Because without it, we might end up doing some truly ridiculous things.
Whether you are trying to go keto, do more Zone 2 cardio, or use change management and behavioral science in the workplace, the origin story makes all the difference.
Elon Musk calls it “first principles.”
When he couldn’t buy a rocket cheap enough, he didn’t just accept the price. He broke it down, he questioned every piece of it, he asked where the numbers came from, and ended up reinventing the process. Years later - SpaceX, the cheapest way to go to space on repeat.
The origin story tells you the context. The problem it was built to solve. How it evolved into what it looks like today. And THAT gives you a much better clue where it's more likely to work.
Take keto.
Originally designed to treat epilepsy. Not weight loss. Not athletic performance. Not building muscle or make you a superhuman. Burning more fat sounds good for weight loss. Until you realize most of the “fat burning”, in studies, meant fat from food, not your body. Of course, that part never made it to your favorite article on weight loss.
In applied behavioral science, the caution is clear: test, test, test. Never assume a solution will transfer. Context is king. Change the context, behavior changes (they call it Field Theory). What works at Tesla under Elon Musk’s leadership may fall flat inside Microsoft.
Same goes for diets. Just because your friend swears by this plan says nothing about how your body, or your life, will respond.
James Healy’s book BS at Work is full of examples where organizations, cultures, people created a mess simply because no one stopped to ask: where did this method come from, and why?
That’s my new habit now for better thinking and better results: before adopting any new advice, I check the origin story. Who created it? In what context? What problem was it built to solve?
If somebody gives me advice, I'll ask - where's your logic coming from? (What's the origin story of your thinking?) Very often we give advice, assuming that everyone comes to their conclusions from the same place. Which is never the case.
Over to you dear reader,
What are some things you’ve accepted without ever asking where they came from, or whether they were designed for your context in the first place?