The knowledge curse is real. Thinking from first principles is lost somewhere in this hyper-connected world.
First-principles thinking, which is sometimes called reasoning from fundamental building blocks has been employed by many great thinkers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.
When one talks about AI, Blockchain, or any emerging buzzword or technology often forgets to reason from first principles.
Though blogs, essays, or podcasts are a good start to understanding any new term or technology — one can only build correct visualization or understanding when one employs the first-principles approach to reason and learning.
In an interview, Elon Musk said, “I tend to approach things from a physics framework — physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy”.
Taking what we study in one context, and applying it to another helps deepen our understanding of both.
First, deconstruct the knowledge into its fundamental principles and then, reconstruct it in a new field or technology.
Reasoning from first principles is one of the most effective practices one can employ for breaking down complicated problems and generating original solutions.
Disclaimer: not from the vantage point of an expert but a Learner.
