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First Principles Thinking

287 points · 138 comments · sunils34

  1. coolfox · · focus · HN ↗
    I use the whole "first principles" thinking as a litmus test for bad engineers, if you're emphasizing first principles all the time you're probably a bit of a naivie person, to put it as nicely as possible. subtraction is a great skill to apply to a great many things we do and when people say "first principles" this is actually what they mean but sometimes things are complicated and a first order approximation is not enough.
    1. jolux · · focus · HN ↗
      “first-order approximation” is pretty different from first-principles thinking in my opinion.
      1. coolfox · · focus · HN ↗
        my gut reaction was to argue over semantics with you but no, you're right they are different. I don't think it's been the case in the overwhelming majority of my cases but you aren't wrong.
    2. loose-cannon · · focus · HN ↗
      Yea I agree. Thinking from first principles is a valuable skill in general.... but certain areas have received so much attention/work and are highly developed. It's not impossible to develop something new by thinking from first principles, but when I see it I often interpret that as either 1) lacking awareness towards the sophistication of the domain, or 2) arrogance.
    3. itsalwaysgood · · focus · HN ↗
      Thinking of your customers is first principles thinking.
      1. hashmal · · focus · HN ↗
        Care to elaborate on this? how is this statement true?
        1. itsalwaysgood · · focus · HN ↗
          Sure. You're spending your time doing something. That's probably to produce a product, or service, for someone else. In this case, it's the customer. So you put them first and foremost in your mind, and then work backwards to identify whatever process is suitable to create the product or service that meets their expectations. This ensures what you deliver is valuable. When we do this, it reinforces our own sense of value. We're helping someone.

          You put the customer first, that's first principles thinking. You adjust the way you spend your time, according to your customer's needs.

          1. sergiu_spokn · · focus · HN ↗
            Also agree with this. It's filtering work and priorities through the customer's lens instead of jumping right away to building. As in asking yourself first, why is this important, what does the customer want to accomplish, are there more of them who experience this ... feels in one way similar to the data-driven philosophy.
            1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

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