Copying strategies without knowing how they’re built is renting. You might see results, but you're leaning on borrowed logic. The moment the strategy stops working, you’re cooked. Understanding their first principles is owning. Self-reliance starts by reversing what works and tracing it back to first principles. When you own the engine, you can modify, rebuild, or invent new strategies on demand. Understanding the generative logic behind success gives you something that survives context collapse. That’s the difference between renting a strategy and owning the engine. Strategies expire. Principles don’t.