How Can First Principles Explain Apple's Dedication to Minimalist Design?

Okay, let's talk about this topic.

To put it plainly, "First Principles" might sound profound, but it's essentially a way of thinking that involves "getting to the root of things." Ordinary people tend to rely on "experience" when doing things, for example, "everyone else does it this way," or "this is how we've always done it." First Principles, however, tells you to disregard how others do it or how it's been done before, and instead, think about the core, most essential purpose of something.

Now, let's look at Apple.

Think about it: what were phones like before the iPhone? Nokia, BlackBerry – they were crammed with physical keyboard buttons. At that time, all phone manufacturers were thinking: "How can we make the keyboard more comfortable? How can we add more function keys to the keyboard?" This is a classic example of "referencing experience."

But Apple (Steve Jobs) didn't think that way. He used First Principles to consider: what is the essence of a phone?

1. Core Purpose: It's not about making calls or sending texts; it's about "interacting with information." Whether it's web pages, photos, videos, or contacts, you are always viewing "information."
2. Biggest Obstacle: The physical keyboard, which took up half the phone's area, was purely an obstruction when you didn't need to type, hogging screen space meant for displaying "information."
3. Most Fundamental Solution: Since the core is "information," then "information" itself should be the protagonist. The best way to interact is to directly touch and manipulate this information with your hand.

Thus, the conclusion naturally emerged: eliminate the physical keyboard and turn the entire front of the phone into a single screen. When a keyboard is needed, a virtual one appears on the screen; when not, it disappears, returning the space to the content.

You see, this "minimalist" design – a large screen on the front plus a Home button – wasn't minimalist for the sake of aesthetics. It was the inevitable result of "getting to the root of things" and solving the core problem. It's functional minimalism, not sacrificing function for beauty.

Let's take another example, the iPod. Before the iPod, MP3 players were covered in buttons: play, pause, next track, previous track, menu, back... operations were very cumbersome. Apple used First Principles to think: what is the core of this device? It's being able to quickly find the song you want to listen to among thousands. Pressing "previous/next track" buttons one by one is too inefficient. What's the fastest way? Scrolling like a rotary dial is the quickest. And so, the classic "Click Wheel" was born. A single wheel integrated all core functions like scrolling, selecting, playing, and pausing. This was another "minimalist design" born from solving a fundamental problem.

Therefore, Apple's dedication to "simplicity" isn't a superficial aesthetic preference. It's the product of a way of thinking: Constantly asking, "What is the most fundamental purpose of this thing?" then ruthlessly cutting away everything unrelated to that core purpose. The most direct and efficient solution that emerges naturally is "simple."

This kind of simplicity makes it feel intuitive to use, as if it was always meant to be this way. That is precisely the power of First Principles.