Heuristic
Etymology
From Greek "heuriskein," "to find" or "to discover" — the same root behind "eureka," Archimedes’ reported cry of "I have found it." A heuristic is, at root, a device for finding: a method that helps you discover a workable answer rather than deduce a certain one. Modern psychology and computer science both adopted the term for shortcuts that trade guaranteed accuracy for speed.
noun · /hyoo-RIS-tik/
A practical rule of thumb that produces good-enough solutions quickly without guaranteeing the best one.
What it names
The mental shortcut you reach for when full analysis is too slow or too costly — indispensable for getting through the day, and reliably wrong in predictable ways.
Example
"Hire slow, fire fast" is a useful heuristic, not a law, and it fails in exactly the cases that matter most.
Related idea
A heuristic is a rough method aimed at finding an answer fast; an axiom is a fixed starting truth, concerned with what is certain rather than what is expedient.