Why can First Principles help students distinguish between 'trick questions' and 'core examination points'?

Let's put it this way, it's like learning to cook.

If your learning method is to memorize recipes by rote, for example, "Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes: two eggs, one tomato, 5 grams of salt." Then, if today you're given three eggs, or the tomato is replaced with a cherry tomato, you might be stumped, not knowing what to do. This is falling into a "question trap," where you're confused by superficial changes.

But if you learn using "first principles," what you learn isn't fixed recipes, but the most fundamental cooking principles:

• At what oil temperature do eggs coagulate and become fluffy?
• Why do tomatoes release juice when heated, and how can their sweet and sour taste be balanced with other flavors?
• What exactly is the role of salt in cooking? (Enhancing flavor, dehydrating, seasoning)

Once you've mastered these most basic, core principles, let alone being given three eggs, even if you're given a bunch of quail eggs, or the tomato is replaced with pineapple, you can calmly analyze and then figure out how to make a new dish. Because you no longer rely on fixed "recipes" (question types), but rather think and solve problems from their essence.

The same principle applies to solving problems (or taking exams).

Many so-called "question traps" are essentially just replacing the "tomato" with a "cherry tomato"; they've only changed superficially, for example:

• Using a more convoluted phrasing.
• Adding a few "red herring" conditions that are completely useless.
• Describing a simple physical process in an overly complex way.

Students who only "memorize question types" panic when they see these changes, because it doesn't match the "recipe" they've memorized; they'll feel it's a new, difficult problem.

However, a student who understands how to think using first principles will habitually ignore these flashy embellishments and directly analyze which fundamental physical law, mathematical definition, or chemical reaction principle the question truly intends to test. They will ask themselves: "Stripping away these outer layers, what is the core of this question?"

For instance, a physics problem might be described in a dazzling way, involving uphill and downhill movements, friction, air resistance, and so on. A student using first principles will immediately see through it, recognizing that it's essentially an application of the "Law of Conservation of Energy." Those complex descriptions are just "traps," while "conservation of energy" is the "core concept being tested."

Therefore, first principles can help you build the underlying logic of a "knowledge framework." It allows you, when facing problems, not to get entangled in superficial details, but to directly hit the nail on the head, seeing through to what the question setter truly wants to test. This is an ability to simplify complexity and adapt to all changes with an unchanging core.