In January 2012, Bret Victor delivered his now-legendary talk, Inventing on Principle, at the Canadian University Software Engineering Conference (CUSEC) in Montreal.
Speaking to an audience of students and software engineers, Victor introduced a radical idea: instead of simply following passions or mastering skills, anchor your work and life to a guiding principle—a belief in what’s truly necessary and right.
Victor is no ordinary technologist.
A designer, engineer, and former member of Apple’s Human Interface team, he has spent his career rethinking how we interact with technology. His work focuses on empowering creators through tools that provide real-time feedback and remove barriers between ideas and execution. Victor’s guiding principle is that creators thrive with an immediate, tangible connection to their work. This belief has become a rallying cry for innovation across design, programming, and education.
Victor’s talk reverberated far beyond the software engineering community, inspiring creators and technologists to rethink their work approach. For Victor, the challenges creators face aren’t just technical but moral.
His call to action is clear.
By grounding our efforts in one guiding principle, we can create tools, systems, and ideas that unlock human potential and drive meaningful change.
The question his talk leaves us with still lingers: what principle will guide you, and how will it shape the world you help create?
What guides your decisions?
For most people, the answer is typically pursuing passions or mastering skills. While those paths can bring fulfillment, aligning one’s life with a guiding principle is another often overlooked way to live and work.
In his talk Inventing on Principle, Bret Victor challenges us to rethink our approach. He suggests that rather than following fleeting passions or fixating on skill-building, we should focus on principles—clear, actionable beliefs that define what we find meaningful and necessary.
Victor’s guiding principle is simple yet profound: Creators need an immediate connection to their creations.
This principle focuses on removing delays and barriers that separate creators from the impact of their work.
For example, Victor demonstrates a coding environment in which changes update instantly, allowing creators to see the results of their ideas in real-time, uninterrupted by the traditional write-compile-test cycle. He also showcases tools for dynamically visualizing circuits, enabling users to observe electricity flow and component behavior as they adjust. This approach makes building and learning intuitive and interactive.
By embedding this principle into the design of tools, he illustrates how aligning his guiding belief with design fundamentally shapes his decisions and approach to building.
Why does this matter?
Because principles provide direction and clarity.
They aren’t just abstract ideals but a framework for making decisions and assessing whether our work is right or wrong. For Victor, seeing creators struggle with tools that disconnect them from their creations isn’t just a technical issue—it feels like a moral wrong. When we frame our work regarding right and wrong, our purpose becomes sharper and our efforts more impactful.
Living by a principle doesn’t just apply to technology; it’s a mindset shift.
It’s about recognizing what truly matters and using that belief to shape how you think, create, and contribute. In a world of distractions and competing priorities, a principle becomes a compass, pointing you toward a life of focus, purpose, and fulfillment.
So, what principle might guide your journey? And how could it transform not just what you create but how you live?
The broader reach of principles: lessons from visionaries
Principles don’t just guide individual work—they can shape entire fields.
When aligned with a clear, actionable belief, a principle becomes more than a personal guide; it morphs into a lens through which we see what’s possible and what needs to change. History is full of examples of people who used principles to leave an indelible mark, not by following trends but by challenging the status quo and reimagining what could be.
Take Larry Tesler, for example. Tesler pioneered the concept of modeless computing, a revolutionary idea in the 1970s. At the time, early software forced users into cumbersome workflows—like toggling between “command mode” to navigate text and “insert mode” to type. These modes created frustration, making technology feel more like an obstacle than a tool.
Tesler’s principle was clear: no one should be trapped in a mode.
He envisioned tools that adapt to users, not the other way around. This belief inspired intuitive innovations like cut, copy, and paste commands and click-and-drag text selection—features we now take for granted but that revolutionized how we interact with computers. By challenging the status quo, Tesler paved the way for the seamless, intuitive interfaces we rely on today.
Or consider Doug Engelbart, whose principle wasn’t just about computers but their potential to amplify human intelligence. Engelbart envisioned a world where computers were tools for collaboration, problem-solving, and navigating knowledge. Guided by this principle, he invented many foundational ideas of modern computing, including the graphical user interface and the mouse. His work wasn’t about incremental improvements but about using technology to help humanity tackle its biggest challenges.
And then there’s Alan Kay, who approached computing with children in mind. His principle? Computers should amplify human thought and creativity. This belief drove his work in creating the first object-oriented programming language and the desktop interface as we know it. Kay’s vision wasn’t just technological—it was deeply cultural, rooted in the idea that empowering children with computational thinking could lead to a more enlightened, creative society.
These examples highlight a powerful truth: principles don’t emerge from solving immediate problems or reacting to trends. They come from seeing something wrong in the world—something others might not even recognize as a problem—and committing to change it.
Visionaries like Tesler, Engelbart, and Kay didn’t follow predefined paths. They used their principles to chart new territory, often challenging widely accepted norms. Their work reminds us that principles aren’t static ideals but active forces that drive us to rethink, reimagine, and rebuild.
The question isn’t just what you believe in—it’s how you’ll let that belief guide you to create something that matters.
Discovering and living your principle
Finding a guiding principle is a deeply personal journey.
It’s not something you stumble upon overnight—it’s a reflection, exploration, and self-discovery process. When unearthed, your principle becomes the foundation for working, thinking, and contributing to the world. It gives your efforts direction and purpose.
But how do you discover what truly matters to you?
Start by looking back at your experiences. Think about the moments in your life or work that left a lasting impression. What kinds of problems made you feel compelled to act? What achievements felt most meaningful? Often, your principle is hidden in these pivotal moments, waiting to be uncovered.
Bret Victor's principle was inspired by frustration with tools that disconnected creators from their work. Larry Tesler was seeing users struggle with modes in early software. These weren’t just annoyances—they represented something deeper, a wrong that needed addressing. Pay attention to the issues that stir a similar sense of urgency or injustice in you.
As you reflect, patterns will emerge.
You might notice recurring themes in what energizes you or makes you feel dissatisfied. Do you care deeply about clarity? Empowering others? Challenging inefficiency? These threads are clues to your principle.
Living by a principle also means embracing a sense of responsibility. When you see something that violates your principle, it’s not just a missed opportunity—it’s a call to act. This turns a principle into more than an idea; it becomes a compass for your decisions and efforts.
Finally, don’t rush the process.
Discovering your principle is as much about broadening your horizons as narrowing your focus. Try new things, explore unfamiliar territory, and take each experience as a chance to understand better what resonates with you and doesn’t.
Living by a principle isn’t always easy but deeply rewarding. It provides a sense of clarity and purpose that anchors you, even when the path ahead is uncertain. It transforms your work from simply solving problems to creating something meaningful.
Bret Victor’s Inventing on Principle isn’t just a talk—it’s a call to reimagine how we live, work, and create. By anchoring ourselves to a guiding principle, we can transcend the limits of simply following passions or solving problems. Principles give us clarity, focus, and a moral compass to navigate complex challenges and drive meaningful change.
Victor’s ideas remind us that the tools, systems, and innovations we create don’t just solve problems—they shape the world. Whether you’re a designer, engineer, artist, or entrepreneur, the principles you choose to live by can inspire others, redefine fields, and leave a lasting impact.
The world needs people who aren’t just problem-solvers but principle-driven creators. Will you answer the call?
