Why do we always go back to the elements? [[Circling reinforces first principles]] The pre-Socratic philosophers talked about the elements of air, earth, fire, water. Karla McLaren refers to the elements in her book, Language of Emotions. There's a book on thinking called The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking. Hope Jahren refers to the earth, air and water as the fundamental resources we work with. (I would like to become an expert in one area to do with each of those elements) The elements will always connect us to our pre-linguistic truth.