Thinking in Primitives: A mental model to dissect the foundations of Civilization, Humanity & Creativity

The most important innovations are invisible. Yet they are reliable building blocks of creativity that fuel human imagination.

The same 26 letter alphabet lets Shakespeare write a play, a researcher publish science or you can text your mum.

A standardised screw thread lets you build a house, a car or a space station.

This is the story of primitives; the fundamental components that make everything else possible. We explore how Jeff Bezos coining the term "Thinking in Primitives" as he invented AWS to the building blocks of the universe and life in it.

Join our tour through the weird and wonderful ideas of history as we gather ideas for how to build the future of humanity, space technology and anything you can imagine.

You'll learn:

• By breakthroughs depends on invisible primitives created by someone before you
• Why the most valuable opportunities are the ones everyone uses but nobody sees
• How to identify foundational building blocks in any industry before competitors do

ABOUT

How to Change the World is an independent podcast on a mission to document the entire history of innovation. One world-changing event at a time. In the process we are building out frameworks and mental models to think more coherently about global change.

Learn more - ChangeTheWorldPod.com

Written, edited, recorded, and produced entirely by Sam Webster Harris.

(He also makes the music...)

Help from:

Francisca Correia does the designs (available to hire)

Jeremy Enns is our incredible podcast mentor (available to hire)

Resources

10 Greatest Mental Models of Jeff Bezos

Sam explains the best mental models of Jeff Bezos on his Growth Mindset Psychology podcast.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intergalactic Planetary... Lasagna

01:40 A mental models episode about building blocks

03:11 #1 - THINKING IN PRIMITIVES: JEFF BEZOS, AMAZON and AWS

04:03 The API Memo

04:39 What is a Primitive?

04:57 How Amazon launched AWS

05:36 The impact of AWS and cloud servers

06:18 #2 - THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE

07:18 How are humans built?

08:09 Mitochondria and energy production

09:39 HOX genes and the animal building instruction manual

11:06 How primitives become essential foundations

12:35 #3 - CIVILIZATION AND HIDDEN INVENTIONS

14:02 The Essential Ingredients of Early empires

15:42 Standardisations that make the world work

17:54 #4 - PRIMITIVE LESSONS

19:37 Market timing and innovation mistakes

21:31 Just do stuff

23:00 #5 - FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

23:19 CRISPR and Casgevy

25:19 Space and Orbital Refuelling

27:14 Wrap up

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