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First Principles Thinking

4 hours ago
  • Senior engineers often get stuck due to accumulated experience making it hard to adapt to change.
  • Focus on momentum by breaking work into the smallest achievable task rather than on outcomes.
  • Great senior engineers think from first principles: asking why, understanding user impact, and connecting codebase to external reality.
  • First principles thinking helps in the shift to agentic development by setting aside past assumptions.
  • Use AI by starting with what you're trying to accomplish, not by getting excited about the technology first.
  • First principles leads to faster learning loops and momentum, creating a new flow state.