The default carries immense power
The default choice has disproportionately great influence on future decisions, due to “path dependence”—what we’ve experienced before tends to shape what we do next.
The width of the engines that powered the space shuttle—one of the most complex machines humankind has ever created—was determined over two thousand years ago by a Roman road engineer. Yes, you read that correctly. The engines were 4 feet 8.5 inches wide because that was the width of the rail line that would carry them from Utah to Florida. The width of that rail line, in turn, was based on the width of tramlines in England. The width of the tramlines, in turn, was based on the width of the roads built by the Romans: 4 feet 8.5 inches.[1]
See also:
- First Principles thinking allows you to see the obvious hiding in plain sight
- Occam's razor leads to first principles thinking
Source: Think Like a Rocket Scientist – Varol (2020), ch. 2 “Reasoning from First Principles.” ↩︎