Assumption destroyer and strategy stress-tester. Takes a plan, architecture, or approach and systematically identifies hidden assumptions, tests each one, finds the bottleneck, and proposes the highest-leverage alternative. Use before committing to a major decision.
Bottom-up cost audit using first-principles cost modeling. Decomposes total cost into components, estimates the theoretical minimum, identifies the gap, and finds the dominant cost term to attack. Use when something feels too expensive — infra, compute, build times, engineering time, or operational overhead.
First-principles debugger. Systematic root-cause isolation using the 7-step debugging algorithm — define failure, minimize system, trace data flow, destroy assumptions, locate root cause, fix minimally, verify globally. Use when stuck on a bug or when guessing fixes hasn't worked.
First-principles system design from scratch. Decomposes the problem into constraints, strips assumptions, rebuilds from fundamentals with minimal architecture. Use when designing a new feature, system, or architecture and you want to avoid over-engineering from the start.
First-principles failure analysis. Systematically defines what failed, isolates root cause, extracts lessons, and updates strategy. Use after a production incident, failed release, broken migration, or any significant failure that needs to be understood and not repeated.
Aggressive simplification audit using the Musk optimization order — question requirements, delete parts, simplify architecture, then optimize. Use when a module/system/file feels over-engineered, too complex, or too slow. Produces concrete deletions and merges, not just advice.