Library skill · Thinkers' principles
Huang-style first-principles review
Redoes a process or product from first principles, checks whether its market exists yet, and writes the reasoning to share, after Jensen Huang's 2024 Stanford GSB talk. Use it when A process still works the way it was designed years ago.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Jensen Huang or their companies. About these principles: Jensen Huang's ideas, explained.
AI skill
Have your AI redo a process from first principles
14 days free · No card needed
Works in Claude, ChatGPT, and coding agents. On Team and Business, this library skill in your pod updates itself when we improve it.
When to use it
- A process still works the way it was designed years ago
- Considering a market that doesn't exist yet
- A leader wants the team to see the reasoning behind a decision
What you give it
- How the process or product works today and why
- What has changed since: tools, costs, customers
- For a new market: who would use it and what stops them
What you get
Today's steps with whether their reasons still hold, a first-principles redo, a market check, a reasoning note to share, the information flow, and a next step.
How it works
- Describe how it's done today
- List what changed
- Redo it from first principles
- Check the market
- Write the reasoning to share
- Plan the information flow
- Recommend
Example
What you give it
We run a chain of 6 language schools in Lisbon. Placement works as it did in 2005: a new student books a 45-minute paper test with a teacher, the teacher marks it by hand, and the student waits up to a week for a class. 30% of people who book the test never enrol [our CRM]. Teachers spend about 20 hours a week on tests across the chain. Since then: students book online, we have speaking-practice software, and our teachers say most of the test's grammar section could be scored automatically.
What you get back (the start of it)
First-principles review (Huang-style): student placement
These are principles Jensen Huang has described publicly at Stanford GSB's View From The Top (April 2024). Not affiliated with or endorsed by Jensen Huang or their companies.
How it's done today
| Step | Why it exists | Still true today? |
|---|---|---|
| Book a 45-minute paper test with a teacher | only teachers could judge level | partly: grammar can be scored automatically, say the teachers |
| Teacher marks it by hand | no other way to score in 2005 | no for grammar; yes for speaking |
| Wait up to a week for a class | classes started weekly | [check: whether classes could start more often] |
Redone from first principles
| Step | Kept / changed / new | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Online grammar check at booking, scored automatically | new | removes the paper test and the marking |
| 10-minute speaking check with a teacher | changed | teachers judge what software can't [check: time needed] |
| Placement within a day, and a trial class | changed | 30% never enrol after booking the test [check: whether waiting is the reason] |
The rest of this output, the full steps and the checks the AI runs before it answers are in your pod once you add the skill.
Use this skill in your AIShare it with your team
Add it to an AI Skill Pod and everyone on the team, contractors included, uses the same version from their own AI. Read the best ways to share AI skills with a team
Changelog
- v1.0.0 · · First release.
Sources
- Stanford GSB: Jensen Huang on How to Use First-Principles Thinking to Drive Decisions (April 2024, with transcript) (read 2026-11-04)
- Wikipedia: Jensen Huang (read 2026-11-04)