Most design decisions are made by copying what already exists. We look at competitors, reference popular patterns, and assemble interfaces from familiar parts. This works — until it doesn't.

## The Problem With Best Practices

Best practices are conclusions without context. They tell you *what* to do but rarely *why*. When the underlying assumptions change, best practices become cargo cult rituals.

**The alternative is first principles thinking** — breaking a problem down to its fundamental truths and reasoning up from there.

## How I Apply This

Every project starts with a question: *What is actually true here?* Not what's trendy, not what competitors do, but what the constraints and goals actually demand.

> The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. — Albert Einstein

This approach takes longer initially but produces solutions that are more resilient, more original, and more precisely fitted to the problem.

### Start With the Problem

Before opening Figma or writing code, I spend time understanding the problem space. Who are the users? What are they actually trying to accomplish? What constraints are non-negotiable?

### Question Every Assumption

Every "obvious" design choice gets interrogated. Does this navigation pattern serve *this* product's users, or are we just defaulting to convention?

### Build and Validate

Theory without practice is philosophy. The goal is to arrive at working software that embodies these principles — not just elegant abstractions.

This is how I approach every project. If that resonates with how you think about building things, I'd love to hear from you.

Thinking in Public

Why First Principles Thinking Matters in Design