First Principles Thinking
- Description
- Curriculum
- FAQ
- Reviews
This course provides a comprehensive overview of First Principles Thinking, an analytical approach focused on understanding problems at their most fundamental level.
The course covers the foundations of First Principles Thinking, including techniques for breaking down complexity, challenging assumptions, and identifying core truths. As a learner, you will develop skills for applying First Principles across diverse contexts, following masters like Tesla, Darwin, Ford, and Freud.
The course outlines a step-by-step process for employing First Principles: identifying the problem, questioning assumptions, decomposing elements, discerning core principles, then reasoning upward to reconstruct solutions. As a learner, you are guided on overcoming biases and developing cognitive flexibility and persistence. Creative Problem-Solving techniques, Systems Thinking, probabilistic reasoning, risk analysis, and other analytical tools are introduced to enhance First Principles skills.
This course provides extensive opportunities to practice first principles thinking across a wide variety of problems. Through these engaging hands-on activities, you will gradually develop an intuition for this style of reasoning. The course also guides you to reflect on each exercise, analyzing how you identified core principles and assumptions. This meta-cognitive process strengthens your analytical skills over time.
With consistent application across diverse situations, you will progressively gain expertise in quickly stripping away assumptions and conventional thinking to reveal penetrating insights to any problem or situation. The structured practice in this course aims to make First Principles analysis feel like second nature.
-
4Deconstructing Knowledge: What is First Principles?Video lesson
This chapter is a great start to understand the basic concept of First Principles and how knowledge can be deconstructed easily through First Principles theory.
-
5Recap QuizQuiz
-
6Problem DecompositionVideo lesson
-
7Problem IdentificationVideo lesson
This chapter discusses identifying the fundamental truths or core principles in a problem.
-
8Exploratory QuizQuiz
-
9Conventional Thinking vs First PrinciplesVideo lesson
-
10ExampleVideo lesson
Provides an example of how first principles thinking can be applied.
-
11Reviewing the ProcessVideo lesson
This chapter revisits the distinction between first principles and analogy.
-
12Deduction vs InductionVideo lesson
-
13Identify the TechniqueQuiz
-
14Cause vs EffectVideo lesson
-
15Kipling MethodVideo lesson
-
16Cognitive Science PerspectiveVideo lesson
This chapter gives a scientific perspective on how we can apply First Principles.
-
17Recap TestQuiz
A recap test of the entire module.
-
18Simplifying Complex SystemsVideo lesson
-
19Techniques for Identifying Core TruthsVideo lesson
-
20Example + DemonstrationVideo lesson
-
21Recap QuizQuiz
-
22Identifying Assumptions & Implicit BeliefsVideo lesson
-
23Strategies for Identifying Implicit BeliefsVideo lesson
-
24Most Important Bias to Avoid in First PrinciplesVideo lesson
-
25Defining Core TruthsVideo lesson
-
26Tester QuizQuiz
-
27Step by Step Process of Identifying the Fundamental TruthsVideo lesson
-
28ExampleVideo lesson
-
29Understanding Basic Human NeedsVideo lesson
-
30Understanding What Drives UsVideo lesson
-
31Psychology of DevelopmentVideo lesson
-
32Recap QuizQuiz
-
33Core Social MotivatorsVideo lesson
-
34Why do Cognitive Biases occur?Video lesson
-
35Surface Symptom vs Deeper Need AnalysisVideo lesson
-
36Significant Human JourneysVideo lesson
-
37Cognitive Load on Decision MakingVideo lesson
-
38Practice QuizQuiz
-
39Individual Differences in Decision MakingVideo lesson
-
45Understanding Cognitive FlexibilityVideo lesson
-
46Understanding Cognitive PersistenceVideo lesson
-
47Cognitive Flexibility vs Cognitive Persistence in First PrinciplesVideo lesson
-
48Strategies to Cultivate Cognitive Flexibility & PersistenceVideo lesson
-
49Probabilistic ThinkingVideo lesson
-
50Examining InvariantsVideo lesson
-
51Assessing RisksVideo lesson
-
52Recap QuizQuiz
Recap quiz of the module
External Links May Contain Affiliate Links read more