I like what is said here, but this isn't what first principles are. First principles are fundamental laws from which all else can be built. They are the underlying assumption in a proof or the laws of thermodynamics. They are not the hole to the drill or the email to the iPhone. Those are products, results. Like I said, I think the point is right. People focus on the technology rather than the result. This is the principle behind real, Christensen-style disruption (not the buzzword, but the real phenomenon). Sometimes you just need to do something better in a different way, while ignoring the horsepower (or whatever other metric) was the norm for a deprecated reason.
