> However, I think sometimes we overvalue thinking from first principles

The problem isn't the thinking though, but the lack of grounding.

You don't have a problem with people coming up with a technically better solution. Your problem is with the people not realizing that they exist in reality and not in a vacuum.

Please don't question the act of thinking itself. It is the wrong target.

Thinking is great. I am arguing that “first principles “ is one tool - and it may not deserve the primacy that its advocates propose.