Writing about how things work
There is a concept called First Principles Thinking. It says instead of following assumptions, habits, or what everyone else is doing, break the problem down to its most basic truths and rebuild from there. I was a software engineer for three years. I had a good job and a clear
There is a concept called First Principles Thinking. It says instead of following assumptions, habits, or what everyone else is doing, break the problem down to its most basic truths and rebuild from there. I was a software engineer for three years. I had a good job and a clear
There is a principle in science called the Null Hypothesis Rule. It says assume nothing is happening until evidence proves otherwise. Start from zero and let the evidence move you. Scientists use this in labs. But honestly, it is most useful on a Friday night. You meet someone at a
There is a principle in science called the Falsifiability Principle. It says a good claim should be testable and capable of being proven wrong. If there is no scenario where your idea could fail, it is just belief. I lived this during my PhD. My research focused on imaging the
There is a principle called the Burden of Proof Rule. It says the person making the claim is the one who has to support it. If you say it, you have to back it up. I learned this the hard way during consulting case prep. When I first started practicing
There is a principle in philosophy called the Principle of Charity. It says when someone challenges your ideas, interpret their argument in its strongest sensible form. Do not look for ways to dismiss it. Look for ways to take it seriously, even when it stings. I learned this during peer
There is a principle called Chesterton's Fence. It says before you tear something down, make sure you understand why it was built in the first place. G.K. Chesterton, the writer who came up with it, used the image of a fence across a road. If you see
There is a principle in medicine called Hickam's Dictum. It says a problem can have many causes at once. Doctors use it when a patient shows up with multiple symptoms that do not point to one clean diagnosis. The answer could be three things happening at the same
There is a principle called the Sagan Standard. It says extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The astronomer Carl Sagan made it famous, but you do not need to look at the stars to see it in action. Just tell a photographer that your phone takes better pictures than their camera.
There is a principle called Alder's Razor. It says if a claim cannot be tested or proven wrong, it is not worth arguing about. A mathematician named Mike Alder came up with it, and honestly, I wish I had found it sooner. Right now there is a proclamation
There is a principle from philosophy called Grice's Razor. It says: do not multiply meanings beyond what is necessary. Understand what someone obviously means. I did not learn about it in a philosophy class. I learned it in a research lab and over case prep calls with friends.
The Hitchens's Razor. I have been interviewing a lot lately. And one thing I keep running into is the gap between what people say and what actually happens. A particular interview I remember was with Apple. But honestly, it was not just Apple. This has happened with so
The Hanlon's Razor. There is something about this rule that excites me, and I will tell you why. It saves you from yourself. Recently, I had a scheduled meeting with a recruiter for a senior program manager position. She sent me an email with a calendar link to
The Occam's Razor. During my PhD, I worked on finding ways to detect diseases very early. I would use an imaging system built in the lab and then recruit patients, both healthy and diseased. The goal was to use this system to obtain images of the retina (the
I make a lot of decisions daily. We all do. It could be business, family or relationships. The clock is always ticking. And as we grow older, these rapid decisions have to be right with little or no margin of error. To make faster and better decisions, our thinking process