thinking-scientific-method
Scientific Method
Overview
The scientific method is a systematic approach to understanding through observation, hypothesis formation, prediction, testing, and revision. In engineering, it provides rigor to debugging, experimentation, and investigation. The key insight: good hypotheses must be falsifiable—you must be able to prove them wrong.
Core Principle: Form hypotheses that could be proven false. Design experiments that could falsify them. Update beliefs based on evidence.
When to Use
- Debugging (systematic cause identification)
- Performance investigation
- A/B test design
- Feature experimentation
- Root cause analysis
- Data analysis
- Any investigation where you're testing theories
Decision flow:
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