ARTIFACT · DECISION MAKING
First Principles Loop
To solve well, reject inherited assumptions, reduce the problem to fundamentals, and rebuild from what is actually true rather than what is customary.
HUMAN VIEW
Genes:
- Assumption Check: Start by identifying the belief being treated as obvious; the method begins when certainty is questioned.
- Fundamental Split: Decompose the problem until only irreducible facts, constraints, or base rules remain.
- Physics Rebuild: Reconstruct the solution from basic truths instead of copying existing patterns or conventions.
- Analogy Shortcut: Analogy can speed thinking, but it is a shortcut that must not replace direct reasoning from fundamentals.
- Truth Over Habit: The governing rule is to reason from what is true, not from what is merely common or usual.
Relationships:
- Assumption Check clears Fundamental Split
- Fundamental Split enables Physics Rebuild
- Analogy Shortcut can bypass Physics Rebuild
- Truth Over Habit motivates Assumption Check
- Truth Over Habit governs Physics Rebuild
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RELATIONS
- EXPLAINS The Focus LoopBoth depend on stripping away extraneous inputs, but this artifact does so at the level of assumptions while the focus artifact does so at the level of interruptions that fragment attention.
- EXTENDS Compounding HabitsThe same rebuild-from-basics logic extends into habit formation by replacing inherited default behavior with small repeated actions that are deliberately designed into the environment.
- APPLIES Feedback Loops in TeamsIts insistence on testing what is actually true applies to teams by favoring short, visible feedback loops over status- or blame-based interpretation.
- COMBINES WITH Decision Under UncertaintyBoth separate decision quality from surface appearances by testing assumptions against fundamentals and judging the process rather than the outcome alone.