First principles five-step engineering algorithm

Elon Musk's first-principles engineering algorithm has five steps in order: (1) question the requirements and make them less dumb regardless of who gave them, (2) try to delete the part or process step entirely, and if you're not forced to add back at least 10% then you didn't delete enough, (3) optimize or simplify, (4) speed up the cycle time, and (5) automate—and a common fatal mistake is optimizing or automating a thing that should not exist.