Mental Models · Card 6

First-Principles Thinking

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.

If I strip away "that's just how it's done," what's the actual fact I'm left standing on?