alt Hacker NewsThis is one of those things where one can throw around the term "first principles thinking" with relative ease.
To actually do it is different and usually comes from having to wrestle with a problem.
Sadly people from the academia and the public at large has a hard time understanding what this even means.
They equate it with exam based memorization or delegation to authority. Funnily they even think first principles reasoning is an improved version of doing the same.
But this is a blessing in disguise as it gives those who wrestle with real problems a unique skillset that can be advantageous.
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And it's a skill that you'll use in other contexts. Over too learn and practice it in IT/physics, and you find out that you can use it to psychology, humans around you are dealt with another depth and different outcomes become possible
> Sadly people from the academia [...] equate [first principles thinking] with exam based memorization or delegation to authority.
In what departments and at what universities? The term "first principles" comes from academia. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a faculty member in any philosophy department doesn't understand what reasoning from first principles is. I'd be surprised if any working mathematician thinks of "memorization" or delegating to authority rather than axiomatization. What experiences led you to say this?