TB: First Principles Thinking

Strip away assumptions, analogies, and received wisdom. Identify the actual moving parts — the knowns, the unknowns, and how they relate. Rebuild reasoning from foundational truths rather than from what people usually do or believe.

Most thinking is reasoning by analogy from prior experience, which is fast but inherits existing limitations and errors. First-principles thinking is slower but can reach solutions that analogical reasoning structurally cannot find. It's especially powerful when the standard approach is wrong for reasons nobody questions.

• First principles thinking (source note): Physics training is explicitly first-principles — ignore stories you can't derive, doubt everything that can't be reached from axioms.

• Circle of Competencies
• The Map is Not the Territory
• Inversion