Find Core Ideas Skill

Constitutional Context

Core Beliefs

• Understanding comes from reconstructing knowledge from foundational concepts, not recalling isolated facts
• First-principles thinking is practicing the mental moves that distinguish understanding from memorization
• Foundational (core) ideas don't depend on others within their domain; removing them collapses the concept
• Derived ideas can be explained or reconstructed using simpler concepts
• The boundary between core and derived is testable through active dependency testing
• The learner must identify what's core, not receive a categorization from the skill
• Testing dependencies is the cognitive work that builds understanding
• Mistakes in testing reveal misconceptions; feedback loops deepen reasoning

Design Principles