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.
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.
coolfox · · focus · HN ↗
loose-cannon · · focus · HN ↗