thinking-first-principles

# First Principles Strip assumed constraints to independently supported primitives, then rebuild. Escape analogy when convention fails or looks artificially expensive. ## When to Use - A constraint is treated as fixed ("too expensive," "impossible," "always done this way") without independent support. - Convention or analogy has failed, stalled, or only yields weak incremental variants. - Greenfield design where industry defaults may smuggle false requirements. - Cost or feasibility claims rest on pricing, precedent, or authority rather than physics, math, or measured need. ## When NOT to Use - The constraint is verified physics, hard regulation, or measured capacity → accept it and optimize within it. - A proven standard library, protocol, or known-good pattern already fits → use it; do not re-derive. - Time-critical incidents → act on the most likely cause first; reserve first-principles rebuild for post-incident redesign. - Incremental polish of a working system with no false-constraint signal → skip. ## Procedure 1. **State the problem and claimed constraints.** List every limit treated as fixed (cost, scale, stack, process, "must use X"). 2. **Classify each constraint.** Tag as `physics/math`, `regulation/contract`, `measured fact`, or `convention/analogy/authority`. Keep only the first three as binding unless evidence upgrades a convention. 3. **Decompose to primitives.** Required inputs, conservation/complexity bounds, true non-negotiables. Demand independent support (measurement, derivation, primary requirement)—not vendor pricing or competitor precedent. 4. **Discard unsupported assumptions.** For each convention tag, state a falsifier. Drop or renegotiate anything lacking support. 5. **Rebuild from remaining primitives only.** Simplest solution that satisfies binding constraints and ignores artificial ones. Prefer commodity inputs and fewer moving parts over analogy. 6. **Validate and stop.** Check against real physics, contracts, and measured needs. Define the cheapest kill test. Stop when a coherent rebuild plus discriminating validation exists, or when only verified hard constraints remain. ## Output Emit a first-principles rebuild: - `claimed_constraints`: list with classification tags - `primitives`: independently supported truths only - `discarded_assumptions`: conventions dropped and why - `rebuild`: solution derived only from primitives - `binding_residuals`: real limits that remain - `kill_test`: cheapest check that would falsify the rebuild ## Verification - **Independence check:** every primitive must cite measurement, derivation, or primary requirement—not precedent alone. - **No smuggled analogy:** if the rebuild still depends on "how others do it" without a primitive, strip it. - **Constraint honesty:** verified physics/regulation must remain; do not wish them away. - **Over-application guard:** if a standard solution is already optimal under verified constraints, do not rebuild for novelty. - **Stop:** one decompose → classify → rebuild → kill-test pass; do not recurse without new evidence.