{"id":351,"date":"2018-04-16T08:19:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T06:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/?p=351"},"modified":"2018-04-16T08:19:40","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T06:19:40","slug":"mental-model-monday-first-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/mental-model-monday-first-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Model Monday: First Principles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I took four days off work and went on a five-day hike along the coast of South Africa.\u00a0 We carried all our own supplies.\u00a0 It was a beautiful experience, refreshing the mind, rejuvenating the soul and purifying the body.\u00a0 It also gave me a lot of time to think about principles, something I’ve been trying to codify for some time.\u00a0 I’m not ready to share my principles now, because they are not finalized, but the method I used on this trip to question my principles is in itself a great principle.\u00a0 It is called first principles, and the best technique to use it is through Socratic Questioning.<\/p>\n

First Principles & Socratic Questioning – <\/strong>from Farnam Street.<\/a><\/p>\n

Socratic questioning can be used to establish first principles through stringent analysis. This a disciplined questioning process, used to establish truths, reveal underlying assumptions, and separate knowledge from ignorance. The key distinction between Socratic questioning and normal discussions is that the former seeks to draw out first principles in a systematic manner. Socratic questioning generally follows this process:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Clarifying your thinking and explaining the origins of your ideas (Why do I think this? What exactly do I think?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Challenging assumptions (How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Looking for evidence (How can I back this up? What are the sources?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Considering alternative perspectives (What might others think? How do I know I am correct?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Examining consequences and implications (What if I am wrong? What are the consequences if I am?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    Questioning the original questions (Why did I think that? Was I correct? What conclusions can I draw from the reasoning process?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I try to use this technique every week.\u00a0 It takes time getting used to, so what I did is write the questions down in a notebook, so I can refer to it during meetings or at my desk.\u00a0 This method has definitely improved my thinking.\u00a0 Try it out yourself.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Last week I took four days off work and went on a five-day hike along the coast of South Africa.\u00a0 We carried all our own supplies.\u00a0 It was a beautiful experience, refreshing the mind, rejuvenating the soul and purifying the body.\u00a0 It also gave me a lot of time to think about principles, something I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}