The builder’s real superpower

Unearthing the principles behind “first principles”

It’s often said in Silicon Valley that building a successful startup requires generating “important truths” that are “non-consensus and right”. But where do such ideas actually come from?

That, too, has a well-established answer: first principles thinking.

But what is first principles thinking? That’s much less clear. Here’s my first pass at clarifying what this approach fundamentally boils down to—the first principles of first principles thinking, as it were. 

Whence “first principles thinking”? 

As best I can tell, the term “first principles” originated as a translation of the ancient Greek term “archē,” literally meaning “first-thing” or “beginning,” used by Aristotle to refer to the fundamental truths within a discipline: the truths that cannot be deduced from any prior truths within that discipline, and that cause or explain most of the other truths within it. This principles-focused approach to science featured prominently in Enlightenment thought and in the Scientific Revolution, a…