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First Principles Thinking: An Overused, Misused Expression
Let me explain
Some phrases get used so often that we stop questioning what they mean. “First principles thinking” is one of them. I see it being used often in business contexts and by individuals who want to sound cool. I hear it frequently on podcasts, conferences, blogs and other media. It is worth being precise about what it actually means. A first principle is a foundational truth that is not derived from anything else. Everything else builds on top of it. Let’s look at some examples.
Isaac Newton’s radical idea was that the same force pulling an apple to the ground is the force keeping the moon in orbit. Before him, motion of celestial objects and everyday motion were considered completely separate phenomena. He unified them under one framework. The laws of motion and the law of gravitation remain extraordinarily useful for solving complex engineering problems today. We also know their limits. Pushing against those limits is what gave us the theories of modern physics upon which a lot of technology is built.
Consider Claude Shannon, who asked a deceptively simple question: what is information, fundamentally? He defined it precisely, established what a ‘bit’ of information is, and built the foundations of information theory. Every digital communication system in existence today…
