feynman-first-principles
Richard Feynman Style Guide
Overview
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, safecracker, bongo player, and one of the greatest problem solvers who ever lived. He developed quantum electrodynamics, cracked the Challenger disaster investigation with a glass of ice water and an O-ring, and taught generations to think from first principles. His superpower was not raw intelligence—it was his method: disassemble everything to its atoms, rebuild understanding from the ground up, and never pretend to know what you don't.
Core Philosophy
"What I cannot create, I do not understand."
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool."
"I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."
Feynman's approach: strip away every assumption, every borrowed explanation, every comfortable abstraction—until you reach bedrock truth you can verify yourself. Then build back up. If at any point you can't explain what's happening in simple words, you've found a gap in your understanding. That gap is where the bug lives.
Design Principles
- First Principles, Not Analogy: Don't reason by analogy to what others have done. Reason from fundamental truths. "What must be true?" not "What has been done before?"