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What first principles thinking is
Decomposing a problem until you reach truths that cannot be reduced further, then reasoning up from those truths instead of by analogy.
The AI-assisted method
- 1
State the claim or design choice you want to examine
- 2
Ask AI to list the assumptions baked into that claim
- 3
For each assumption, ask AI for evidence for and against
- 4
Identify which assumptions are truly fundamental
- 5
Rebuild the answer from those fundamentals alone
Worked examples
- Business creation — why this category, why this customer, why now
- Product design — what physical or economic law makes this possible
- Pricing — what is the value created, captured, and left on the table
- Marketing — what does the customer actually believe today
- Investment — what must be true for this to compound
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