Sometimes people try to figure out how to act by reasoning out rules from first principles, then acting according to the logical implications of those principles, regardless of consequences.

That level of abstraction doesn’t work, because real life is more complicated. It obscures the real situation. You have to start from what’s in front of you.

This is a reason that social skills classes that try to teach atypical people how to be normal by following rigid rules do a lot of harm.