Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Last updated: 20 September, 2020

1. First principles thinking
FIPS seeks to create an outlet for the theoretical development and practical application of first principles thinking with the ultimate goal to contribute to tackling societal challenges. Despite being a versatile thinking method with great potential, it is no panacea for problem-solving. This means you may not always discover the ideas you are hoping for. The method appears to work best with challenges that are concrete and demarcated to a specific territory. The more complex and multifaceted the challenge, the more likely you are to get lost in the process to follow, as wicked problems often require multiple solutions and therefore many avenues for you to embark on. In other words, we advise you to embark on sub-challenges such as reducing air pollution from cars in a particular city as opposed to reducing global climate change altogether.
 
2. Property reservation
All published content is the property of FIPS. Unless stated otherwise, all content is published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. 
 
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in submissions published by FIPS reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views held by FIPS, the FIPS team or the authors' employer.
 
3. Editing & publication
Anyone can submit an article (draft) on the theory or practical application of first principles thinking through this website and other FIPS channels. FIPS reserves the right to edit, publish and remove the content that it receives through this website and other channels. Before publication, FIPS will discuss any revisions made to the original submission with contributors as well as the possibility of the inclusion/removal of the contributors’ (pen) names from the publication. Contributors are given a period of 30 days from the moment they are contacted by email in order to express their approval/rejection of revisions. After this period, any requests made by the contributors are welcome but may not always be honored by FIPS. 
 
4. Delivery of articles 
FIPS offers the possibility of delivering published articles to people or organisations who could use the ideas presented in the articles in practice, for example to tackle a certain societal challenge. FIPS is free to decide what channels and means are used for delivery, and may decide to discontinue its delivery efforts at any time. Evidently, FIPS does not guarantee a successful delivery of, or follow-up to, an article. FIPS may furthermore deny a request made by the author to deliver an article.

5. Proceeds from articles
FIPS maintains the right to profit from its publications. While authors will always be credited with their work, FIPS is unfortunately unable to reimburse authors for their submitted material at this time. 

6. Online Course
For online courses, we recommend our students to first familiarise themselves with the terms of use of the associated hosting platform before enrolling.

7. Workshops
FIPS offers workshops on first principles thinking at different locations around the world as well as online. Interested parties may request a quote, after which the potential client and workshop facilitator(s) can settle on a price that is reasonable to both parties. The price may vary depending on the location, necessary preparations, workshop duration, number of participants and foreseen challenges to tackle. If the workshop requires facilitator(s) to travel, the travel costs are paid by the client before the workshop takes place. If the workshop has taken place, the invoice needs to be paid within 31 days, unless other agreements are made. 

FIPS reserves the right to cancel a workshop at any moment. In that case it shall try to find an alternative moment with the client. If the workshop does not take place at all, money paid by the client will be paid back in full within 31 days after cancellation. If the client wishes to cancel a workshop, a 30% fee may be incurred due to preparations and loss of foreseen income.

Unfortunately FIPS cannot guarantee the level of utility of the solutions generated. The facilitators facilitate the process, while the actual idea generation relies largely on the input of participants. 

8. Online Consultations
FIPS occasionally organises open sessions in which we go through the first principles thinking method while applying it to a societal challenge. On this website you can find when and where walk-in sessions take place. Anyone is welcome to join as long as the venue capacity allows it; typically, this means a maximum of 6 participants. If you sign up at least 24 hours before the session, FIPS will let you know up to a few hours in advance if the maximum capacity has been reached already. If that is the case, you will get priority to join a session in the future. If you do not hear from FIPS, you are welcome to join. If FIPS decides to change the venue or cancel the session, you will be notified up to half an hour before the session takes place. While participants are encouraged to suggest what challenge to tackle, facilitators make the final call. Anyone is free to use and share the ideas that were generated during the session. 

9. Certificate eligibility 
Through the website, material, services and activities offered by FIPS, anyone can learn about first principles thinking. When someone has demonstrated to have an understanding of this technique, he or she will be awarded a certificate. There are three certificate qualifications: basic, intermediate and advanced. Learners can be awarded the “basic” qualification if they successfully complete one of the activities below, “intermediate” for two activities and “advanced” for three activities. The activities are:
  • Writing an article for publication
  • Completing FIPS’ online course
  • Participating in a workshop
  • Participating in a walk-in session
Doing the same activity twice counts as well. For example, if learners participate in two walk-in sessions, they will be awarded the intermediate qualification. However, to be awarded the advanced qualification, they will need to have submitted at least one article for publication or taken part in the online course/workshop in order to fulfill the third requirement.

10. Donations
Through this website, donations of different sizes can be made. Examples of their uses are: educating people on first principles thinking, attracting article submissions, covering expenses like website hosting, organising events, etc. FIPS reserves the right to determine the purposes for which donations will be used. Once a donation is made, it cannot be returned. 
 
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, ideas, suggestions, anything: 
Share by: