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Reasoning by first principles is useful when:
- Doing something for the first time.
- Dealing with complexity.
- Trying to understand a situation that you’re having problems with.
In all of these areas, your thinking gets better when you stop making assumptions and you stop letting others frame the problem for you.
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Cutting through the dogma
If we never learn to take something apart, test the assumptions, and reconstruct it, we end up trapped in what other people tell us.
We remain trapped in the way things have always been done. When the environment changes, we just continue as if things were the same.
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Socratic questioning to establish first principles
- Clarifying your thinking and explaining the origins of your ideas (Why do I think this?);
- Challenging assumptions (How do I know this is true?)
- Looking for evidence (How can I back this up? )
- Considering alternative perspectives (What might...
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First-principles thinking
Breaking down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up.
It’s one of the best ways to learn to think for yourself, unlock your creative potential, and move from linear to non-linear results.
This approach was used by the philosopher Ar...
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Analogies can’t replace understanding
Analogies are beneficial; they make complex problems easier to communicate and increase understanding. Using them, however, limits our beliefs about what’s possible and allows people to argue without ever exposing our (faulty) thinking.
It’s only when we step back, ask ourselves what...
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A first principle
...is a foundational proposition or assumption that stands alone. We cannot deduce first principles from any other proposition or assumption.
Reasoning by first principles removes the impurity of assumptions and conventions. What remains is the essentials.
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The Challenge of Reasoning From First Principles
One of the primary obstacles to first principles thinking is our tendency to focus on making slight iterations on the same theme. The problem is that, old conventions and forms are often accepted without question and they set boundaries around creativity.
Optimize the function. Ig...
Practical ways to use First Principles Thinking
- If you’re starting a business, use first principles to build a product or service that’s fundamentally better than the competition.
- If your day is too busy, first principles thinking could help you get everything done in less time and with less stress.
- If you...
Recognize which thinking is needed
Most leaders haven't thought much about the realms of knowledge and what problems they can solve. If you're a leader of a large corporation with challenges in all three of these realms, it's a big part of your job to ensure the right kinds of thinking are used and in which situation it is require...
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