André Casal

I think from first principles, then I build.

I'm a first-principles thinker, philosopher, and engineer. I think about systems deeply before I build them — whether that's software architecture, a product strategy, or a framework for thinking about life decisions.

I don't take things at face value. I question defaults, discard inherited assumptions, and reconstruct from the ground up. This is how I approach everything — code, product, and life.

What this site is

I write long-form essays about the decisions that compound — in code, product, and life. Each essay is an attempt to think clearly about something that matters and share what I find.

No fluff, no listicles, no hot takes. Just deep thinking, clearly expressed.

LaunchFast

I built LaunchFast because I applied first-principles thinking to the question: what does a founding codebase actually need? The result is a production-ready TypeScript starter that handles auth, email, payments, and deployment — so you can focus on what makes your product unique.

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