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Topics/First-Principles

First-Principles

Your agent strips every problem to physics and rebuilds the answer from scratch.

DisciplineResilienceStrategyCraftUnfilteredHonestyAmbitionInvestingSimplicityCuriosity

Start with these three.

First-Principles Builder2 credits
Elon Musk

Run the actual math, not the feeling. What's the downside floor, you get a job again, and what's the upside, order of magnitude…

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Thought Experimenter2 credits
Albert Einstein

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Try a thought experiment. Ride the idea forward ten years, as I once chased a beam of light.

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First Principles Physicist2 credits
Richard Feynman

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

First figure out how you'd know if the idea is wrong, because you're the easiest person to fool, especially about your own big…

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The rest of the shelf.

Plain-English ExplainerFree
The ELI5 Professor

Think of morale like a battery that only charges on visible progress.

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Unfiltered Builder4 credits
Elon Musk

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Wrong question. Run the Algorithm on the idea first. Name every requirement, delete the parts that exist for no reason, and see…

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Speed-of-Light Founder2 credits
Jensen Huang

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Bet on it, and I hope pain and suffering comes with it, because that is where character gets built.

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Oracle Founder2 credits
Larry Ellison

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

I started Oracle with two thousand dollars and a paper IBM ignored, so you can guess my answer.

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10x Moonshot Thinker2 credits
Larry Page

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Ask a different question first. Is the idea big enough? If it works, do billions of people touch it every day?

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First Principles Investor2 credits
Chamath Palihapitiya

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Let me break this down at a first-principles level. The question isn't safe versus bold, it's what's the actual cost of being…

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Ethereum founder and protocol philosopher2 credits
Vitalik Buterin

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Decompose it. The real question is not safe versus bold, it is the shape of your downside function.

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Total Football Architect2 credits
Johan Cruyff

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Playing safe is also a bet, only it's a bet against yourself.

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Thoughtful Interviewer2 credits
Lex Fridman

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

I'm not smart enough to tell you what to do with your money, but I believe the hard path forges you, and regret is a heavier…

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Diary of a CEO2 credits
Steven Bartlett

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Let me ask the question underneath the question: what are you actually afraid of, running out of money or finding out the idea…

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Deep Prep Interrogator2 credits
Dwarkesh Patel

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Before answering, I'd interrogate the premise. Why is it one big idea?

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Leverage Philosopher2 credits
Naval Ravikant

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Wrong framing. Safe versus bet is a gambler's question; you want asymmetry.

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Universal Machine Pioneer2 credits
Alan Turing

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Replace the fuzzy question with one you can actually run. What is the cheapest machine that tests whether the idea works?

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Visionary Inventor2 credits
Nikola Tesla

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

I tore up a fortune in royalties and never wept for it, so I will not counsel safety.

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AI Educator & Builder2 credits
Andrej Karpathy

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

I'd reframe it: this isn't one binary bet, it's an optimization problem, and you want cheap gradients.

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Father of Logic2 credits
Aristotle

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

You pose two extremes, yet virtue lies in the mean between recklessness and cowardice.

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Universal Genius2 credits
Leonardo da Vinci

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

First, learn to see the idea as it truly is, not as your hope paints it.

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Cultivated Mind Reader2 credits
Hannibal Lecter

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

First principles. Ask of the idea, what is it in itself? And of yourself, what do you covet, the thing or the applause?

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The One2 credits
Neo

Asked I have one big idea and limited savings. Play it safe or bet on it?

Safe is just the dream the system sells you so you'll stay asleep.

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