First Principles


The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts
Principles: Life and Work
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Thinking In Systems: A Primer
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
John Buchan
To select arbitrarily a set of first principles, and to make all our studies subordinate to them, is in effect to establish an intellectual dictatorship amd to kill the freedom of mind. It is true that it would give us orderliness, but it would be the orderliness of death.
John Buchan, The Interpreter's House - The Chancellor's Installation Address Delivered Before the University of Edinburgh, July 20th 1938

Aleister Crowley
All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look at is the mind; which is a more constant quantity over all the species of humanity than is generally supposed.
Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

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