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.
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.
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coolfox · · focus · HN ↗