Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

068 First Principles

Things we know for certain to be true and that are not derived from anything else.

First principles are things about the world that we know to be true — or, at least, that we posit to be true or have very high confidence are true — and that aren’t derived or reasoned from other things.1

First principles are irreducible and immutable, like laws of nature, and as such represent the canonical set of constraints and rules governing problem solving and design. All other constraints and rules are derived or postulated — i.e., they are, in a sense, artificial. Examples of first principles include Newton’s laws of motion in physics, the proposition that all people are created equal in law, working memory limits in psychology, and ...