from-first-principles
Strip a problem down to what's actually true — the physics, economics, and human basics — and rebuild the answer from there, ignoring 'how it's normally done'. Use when asked to think from first principles, why is this done this way, challenge the assumptions here, or rebuild this from scratch. Produces the problem reduced to its fundamental truths, the inherited assumptions and conventions named and questioned, and a solution reasoned up from the basics — which often looks nothing like the default because the default was just copied.
Profile →npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill from-first-principles --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# From First Principles Most answers are reasoned by analogy — "this is how it's done, so we do it too." First-principles thinking throws that out: it breaks the problem down to what's *actually, physically, economically* true, then rebuilds from those basics. The result often diverges sharply from convention, because the convention was inherited, not derived. ## What This Skill Produces - **The fundamentals** — the problem reduced to what's genuinely true (constraints from physics, math, economics, human needs), not what's assumed - **The inherited assumptions** — the "that's just how it's done" beliefs, named and questioned (which are real constraints, which are just convention?) - **The rebuild** — a solution reasoned upward from the fundamentals - **The divergence** — where this differs from the default, and why the default existed anyway ## Required Inputs Ask for these if not provided: - **The problem or decision** — what you're rethinking - **The current/default approach** — how it's normally done - **The real goal** — what you're actually trying to achieve - **The constraints you believe exist** — so we can test which are real ## Framework: Reduce, Question, Rebuild 1. **Re
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Framework: Reduce, Question, Rebuild
- Output Format
- Problem: [what we're rethinking]
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
- Example Trigger Phrases
What does the from-first-principles skill do?
Strip a problem down to what's actually true — the physics, economics, and human basics — and rebuild the answer from there, ignoring 'how it's normally done'. Use when asked to think from first principles, why is this done this way, challenge the assumptions here, or rebuild this from scratch. Produces the problem reduced to its fundamental truths, the inherited assumptions and conventions named and questioned, and a solution reasoned up from the basics — which often looks nothing like the default because the default was just copied.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill from-first-principles --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,277 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.