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⚡ Advanced Techniques·Works on: claude, chatgpt

First-Principles Decomposer

Technique: First Principles

Break the problem down to atomic facts. Rebuild from atoms. Catch the assumption everyone missed.

Advanced#first-principles#reasoning#strategy
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Use first-principles reasoning on this problem. Strip it to atoms before answering.

Problem: 

Protocol:

**Stage 1 — Decomposition.** Break the problem into its atomic components. For each component, classify it as:
- **Fact** (verifiable, not in dispute)
- **Assumption** (we are treating it as true but could verify)
- **Belief** (a value judgment or convention, not a fact)
- **Unknown** (we don't have this info)

List every component. Be ruthless — if something can't be classified, it's probably a fuzzy intuition that needs sharpening.

**Stage 2 — Assumption audit.** Take every Assumption from Stage 1. For each:
- What evidence supports it?
- What would falsify it?
- Is it actually a Belief in disguise?

Mark any assumption that fails this audit as **"NEEDS VERIFICATION"**.

**Stage 3 — Reconstruction.** Build the answer using only:
- Facts from Stage 1
- Verified assumptions
- Explicitly stated beliefs (with their warrant)

Ignore any "received wisdom" that didn't survive Stage 2.

**Stage 4 — The hidden constraint.** State the single unstated rule that everyone tackling this problem accepts without justification. Is it actually a rule? What happens if we discard it?

This is where first-principles thinking earns its keep.
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›See the lazy version this template replaces
Before — the lazy prompt
Why is <X> hard?

Why it works

  • The Fact/Assumption/Belief/Unknown classification is a forcing function — it makes you separate things humans constantly confuse.
  • Assumption audit catches the 'everyone-knows-X' failure that breaks more projects than technical limits.
  • The 'hidden constraint' question is the one Elon Musk talks about — and the one most prompts never reach.
  • Ignoring 'received wisdom' is what unlocks counterintuitive answers.

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