Lenny is a software engineer turned newsletter writer whose Lenny’s Newsletter and related podcast and job board have made him beloved online for his advice and perspective.
Guest Author: Lenny Rachitsky
People talk about first-principles thinking, but most people don’t really know what it is or how to apply it.
In this week’s essay, I do my best to explain it, give you a practical set of steps for applying it in your work, and share a ton of examples of product leaders using it, including @gdb @MrBeast @annewoj23 @bchesky @ay_o @nilanp @ilyasut @elonmusk + Julia Child and James Dyson
Thinking from first principles takes a lot of time and effort, and is not something you should do all the time, but many of history’s (and tech’s) biggest breakthroughs came from someone making the effort to think from first principles.
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. You can change it; you can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. The minute that you understand that you can poke life, and if you push in, something will pop out the other side—that you can change, you can mold it—that’s maybe the most important thing. To shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. […] Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” —Steve Jobs
