Chef Vs Cook-First Principles Thinking

I was recently in a meeting with a client, pitching one of our existing solutions. The solution worked well, but it required extensive compliance approvals from regulators—a step the client was looking to avoid to speed up their market entry. While the easy path was to stick to the tried and tested, the client’s urgency pushed me to consider an alternative path.

Instead of getting locked into our existing solution design, I paused and asked myself: What is the client truly after, and is there a way to meet their needs without relying on our standard approach? What if we redesigned the solution from the ground up?

This was an exercise in first-principles thinking—stripping out all assumptions and breaking down the issue to its core elements. Thinking this way opened up new possibilities that did not exist prior.

First principles thinking is about questioning why things are done a certain way instead of simply accepting them as given.

Chef Vs Cook

We can think of this idea through the analogy of a Chef Vs Cook. The distinction between the two is subtle but significant. The chef is a creator who knows all the ingredients and can concoct a new dish because he understands the first principles of the ingredients and the process of bringing them together to create a dish. On the other hand, a cook makes a dish by following a menu. Take out the menu; the cook is lost because there is no first principles understanding of what it takes to create the dish. There is only the memory of the menu. The dish or the solution is constrained by the menu.

As I considered the client’s needs, I began to dismantle our solution to its core objectives. Why can’t it be done differently? What prevents us from approaching it another way? Through this process, It quickly became evident that we could indeed deliver a solution that met their requirements without going through the regulatory hurdles. We are now delivering what the client wants in a radically different way, which is exciting.

First Principles Thinking

Often, we end up trapped in patterns shaped by “how things have always been done.” History, conventions, and experiences become limiting.

First-principles thinking challenges this notion, allowing us to approach problems with a fresh perspective(Why do I think this? What exactly am I aiming to achieve?), challenging assumptions (How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite?), looking for evidence (What supports this view?), and examining alternatives (What might others think?).

When we reason by first principles, we gain the freedom to adapt, innovate, and find answers others might miss. It’s a process of seeing the world as it is rather than how we assume it to be.