First Principle Thinking

First principle thinking is a term that has gotten popular recently by many famous people but this also has infected the meaning. People may say it’s an altogether different form of thinking or be confused if there’s second principle and so on as well?

What it actually means in simple terms is to explain things simply without the help of a system or framework guiding it. This means to see things as they are without any innate assumptions.

We may assume that we never assume such things casually in our daily lives but that’s not true. We assume things all the time since it’s convenient to do so.

For example, we think we are addicted to smartphones since they are built to be addicted but that’s normal thinking.

A first principle thinker’s thought process would be this: why am I addicted to smartphones? Because I watch youtube. Well, why do I watch youtube? It's because it is addictive. What can I do about this? I can change some aspects such as watching it on my laptop with extensions that disable comments or recommendations and keep my phone far away.

A lot of this is also basically Socratic questioning though but it’s important to distinguish that we are open to call out assumptions to find a solution if there is a problem. Questioning things for no reason is just a waste of time and resources.

First principle thinking is quite tricky though. After all, from a young age, we are all taught in school and naturally as a result, taught all systems of sorts so how do we come out of this?

Well, first principle thinking can also be thought of as a way to think out of the box. Certainly, we can truly never be as unbiased of systems like the earliest philosophers did but this is indeed the curse of knowledge.

But the alternative is good enough, simply look at things from a structure of simplicity. For example, if an event occurs, who is the one that benefits the most? That tells a lot about the situation.

That being said, while being contrarian is popular, it is best to stick to the usual systems since most of the time, they work well for what it’s worth or else societies would have a hard time now.

First principle thinking is a way of stripping down the historical or past methodologies and thinking out of the box and stripping down the purest necessity as well. It might be as radical as saying to break the chair to get it outside the room.

People say first principle thinking can be used and is everywhere but in reality, it’s useful in situations of decision making since people spout jargon, confusing words and outright lies and when we live in such a world, using first principle to clear the mess and regain clarity is incredibly useful otherwise.

Forget other people, we ourselves lie and make things worse for ourselves. There’s a reason why cognitive dissonance is a thing.