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Mental Models · Card 6
First-Principles Thinking
Strip away 'how it's done'.Stand on what's still true.
- 'Everyone does it'
- The bedrock fact
- Isn't a reason
- Does it fit my goals?
Reason from the bedrock facts you can actually verify, not from "everyone already does it this way."
In Practice
"Everyone invests in gold before Diwali" isn't a reason. The actual bedrock fact, does this asset fit your goals and timeline, is.
Generic Example
"We've always done it this way" isn't a reason to keep doing something. Asking what problem it was actually solving might reveal a better way now.
Ask yourself
If I strip away "that's just how it's done," what's the actual fact I'm left standing on?
Shows up in First-Principles Thinking