First Principles Thinking

Question inherited baggage. Rebuild only from bedrock you can defend.

When to use

• "Why do we do it this way?", "is this really required?", "what would this cost if we started from scratch?"
• A strategy or design copied from an incumbent ("like Uber for X") that nobody has checked.
• Cost, architecture or process choices that exist only because they always have.

Skip: quick convention-following checklists with no wish to revisit assumptions, or purely social coordination with nothing to model.

Before you start

1. State in one block: Reconstruction target (belief, cost, design or strategy to ground) and Pass (Surface, Question, Bedrock, Rebuild, Implications).
2. Gather first. Read the code, contracts, specs or data that show what is actually required (a regulation, an SLA, a measured limit) before tagging anything fundamental. Ask up to 3 questions only for immutable constraints that tools cannot answer.
3. Light path. Small ask: 3 assumptions, 3 bedrock items, a 3-step rebuild, 2 implications.

Steps