First principles

What is it?

Boil things down to the basic fundamentals and start to reason from there but not by analogy and convention.

I'd have to say this is the best concept I have learned in the two years. Especially, when I began to teach other people programming or lively support people coding, I realized that most beginners or even experienced ones code just by analogy without any induction from the principles. When they encounter problems, they just murmur why it doesn't work? I see it once works there or in others' work.

Yes, it's easier to code by analogy or in other words by acting like a copycat. That's how people learn at the beginning. But the problem is that you will lose the ability to diagnose problems, solve issues and the most import thing is to invent new things. You should be aware of the basic fundamentals in your expertise area. This allows you to reason about the issues you meet in your future work or even make breakthroughs by breaking the fundamental things or assumptions.

Elon Musk learned physics at college. He introduced first principles as a good way to learn or solve problems. In physics, first principle is the fundamental concept or basic law from which all other principles and laws can be derived. It is also known as a fundamental principle or axiom.

Below is a youtube video in which Elon Musk explained First Principles. I recommend it to all :)