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## Highlights
after reading _Zero: A Biography of a Dangerous Idea_ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8c011w2q28rdprnc0kzm1))
Zero discovery is difficult to express with the words and concepts at our disposal today, but I know the emotional profile of _finding_ a Zero. In the professional analysis of one of AlphaGo’s games against the best human Go player in the world, one observer remarked that the moves were like watching the AI play “Go from an alternate dimension.” _That’s_ the profile. _That’s_ what it feels like to witness Zero discovery. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8embm9tses6ar2fhp223z)) ^bivlpu
- [[Zero discovery]]
What if we weren’t motivated by social status, others approval or wealth accumulation? What if we felt no tribal proclivities? What if we primarily cared about harmonious play, of a type we don’t even have words or concepts for today, with all things around us? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8g95t3pe5r5367cz1zkf0))
- đź’ A child-like curiosity helps us get close to zero
It is a twin with “first-principles” thinking. Zeroth-principles thinking is about _building blocks_, or the structure of all things, whereas first-principles thinking is about _system laws_, or how things interact. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8hqry8szq0scjp42j0v7p))
It is a twin with “first-principles” thinking. Zeroth-principles thinking is about _building blocks_, or the structure of all things, whereas first-principles thinking is about _system laws_, or how things interact. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8htzrkb9s0hy553qbakbc))
- đź’ [[Zeroth Principle Thinking]]
First-principles thinking sets goals in known terms and then pursues them, inventing and learning new things as necessary, but it rarely uncovers brand new conceptual primitives of the kind which the world needs. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8j4yqy8gkepz15qstsa7c))
- đź’ [[First Principles Thinking]]
When people say, “From first principles…” to start their argument, what they mean is that they wish to assume as few things as possible from _within a given frame._ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8kethwknvnsba9cmtn491))
What concepts are hiding in plain sight but can’t be seen by anyone? How do we, with our limited human cognition, start thinking “from an alternate dimension”? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h2a8q3mrx0mtk84cvq3zpg02))