The First Principle

The four axes

The four letters of LATS are answers to four questions. Each question has two possible answers, and the combinations give the 16 types. The First Principle answers L, A, T, S.

1. What convinces you?

   LLogicLogos

   Convinced when the reasoning holds together

   PEmpathyPathos

   Convinced when it feels right

2. What do you build your thinking on?

   AEssenceArchē

   Thinks from a foundation that does not change

   KChangeKinesis

   Thinks in motion, while things are moving

3. What matters most to you?

   TWholeTelos

   Rules and purposes that apply to everyone

   IIndividualIdion

   What belongs to one person and one moment, and cannot be replaced

4. How do you approach something new?

   SSkepticismSkepsis

   Doubts first, accepts after checking

   EOpennessEros

   Gets interested first, accepts it, then goes deeper

About The First Principle

The First Principle does not trust “somehow.” When things get decided by custom, by the mood in the room, or by “everyone says so,” they feel uneasy. To say they “know” something, they need grounds that are truly certain. To them, confidence without grounds is just an assumption.

Descartes, deciding to “doubt everything,” was following the same impulse. Strip away every assumption, start from the one thing left, “I who am doubting certainly exist,” and rebuild the world from there. This intellectual scrupulousness lies at the root of how the First Principle thinks.

What others notice

• Strength

  Decides quickly. Can reach a conclusion the moment the information is in.

• Both sides

  Always gives a reason when changing their mind. In other words, never takes a position back without one.

• Watch out for

  When a discussion drags on, cuts in with “So, what's the conclusion?” Sees no value in the process itself.

In everyday life

Work

Vague instructions and “let's just try it” are hard for them. They want the overall direction and its grounds made clear before they act. In a meeting, they are the one who asks, “What is that based on?” People sometimes find this tiresome, but the question saves the team from big oversights.

Relationships

They take time to build trust. They don't take people at their word right away. They judge by whether someone's actions stay consistent. Once they trust someone, though, they are extremely loyal, and that trust does not waver easily.

Decisions

They make a point of not being swept along by emotion. They draw a clear line between “is it right?” and “does it feel good?” and put the first one first. In heated arguments they can end up isolated, but afterwards people often say, “The one who stayed calm was right.”

Biases to watch for

1. Confirmation bias

   Once something seems “certain,” they stop looking for evidence against it.

Read how to counter themPersonal Guide

Interpreter

They think principles through and organize them into theory. Working in the study, Kant built a system around the question “What can a human being know?”

Intervener

They design the structures of states and societies based on principles and take part in real politics. In an age of civil war, Hobbes set out the form of a state that could stop the fighting.

• 

  Interpreter

  Immanuel Kant

  “the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me” (Kant, Critique of Practical Reason)

• 

  Intervener

  Thomas Hobbes

  “a war of every man against every man” (Hobbes, Leviathan)

A first book

Critique of Pure ReasonKant

The original model of the attitude “doubt everything first, then believe.” Start with an introductory guide to it.

All 16 types