[Notes] First Principles Thinking

05 Jul, 2025

Notes from the blog: First Principles

• Reasoning from first principles: break down complicated problems into basic elements & then reassemble them from the ground up.
• 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 vs. analogies:
  • It is like the difference between a cook & a chef.
  • A cook copies recipes, sometimes with slight variations whereas a chef understands the raw ingredients & creates new recipes.
• Much of what we believe is based on some authority figure telling us that something is true or false.
• If you outright reject dogma, you become a problem. When you can't change your mind, though, you die.
• When it comes down to it, everything that is not a law of nature is just a shared belief.

Techniques for Establishing First Principles

Socratic Questioning:

• Used to establish first principles through stringent analysis by following this process:
  1. Clarifying your thinking & explaining the origins of your ideas.
     • Why do I think this?
     • What exactly do I think?
  2. Challenging assumptions.
     • How do I know this is true?
     • What if I thought the opposite?
  3. Looking for evidence.
     • How can I back this up?
     • What are the sources?
  4. Consider alternate perspectives.
     • What might others think?
     • How do I know I'm correct?
  5. Examining consequences & implications.
     • What if I'm wrong?
     • What are the consequences if I am?
  6. Questioning the original questions.
     • Why did I think that?
     • Was I correct?
     • What conclusions can I draw from the reasoning process?

"Because I said so" or "The Five Whys":

• Try asking back-to-back five "why"s to uncover the layers beneath your reasoning.
• This is helpful for discovering how you arrived at a conclusion and if there are any loopholes in it.

"As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble."
-Harrington Emerson

• Analogies can't replace understanding.

#Notes