Dilbert's shaving with Occam

A must-read dilbertian perspective (the comments above the post are also worth a quick browse...) on Occam principle..

For Skeptics, occam’s razor has become analogous to a religion. It has a sensible core concept but over time it has morphed into the irrational belief that “the simplest explanation is usually correct” in all sorts of contexts where it just isn’t true.

For example, if you were arguing that millions of people have been abducted by aliens, and you had several theories for why no physical evidence has ever been found, the skeptic would bring up occam’s razor. “The simplest explanation is that those people are lying and/or deluded.” The skeptic would be right in this case, but a lucky rabbit’s foot appears to work sometimes too. The problem is not that occam’s razor works; the problem is that it APPEARS to work in EVERY case, even for people with opposite theories.

I call this problem Adams’ razor, and it goes like this: “The explanation that you believe is correct will always seem simplest to you.”

A must-read dilbertian perspective (the comments above the post are also worth a quick browse...) on Occam principle..

For Skeptics, occam’s razor has become analogous to a religion. It has a sensible core concept but over time it has morphed into the irrational belief that “the simplest explanation is usually correct” in all sorts of contexts where it just isn’t true.

For example, if you were arguing that millions of people have been abducted by aliens, and you had several theories for why no physical evidence has ever been found, the skeptic would bring up occam’s razor. “The simplest explanation is that those people are lying and/or deluded.” The skeptic would be right in this case, but a lucky rabbit’s foot appears to work sometimes too. The problem is not that occam’s razor works; the problem is that it APPEARS to work in EVERY case, even for people with opposite theories.

I call this problem Adams’ razor, and it goes like this: “The explanation that you believe is correct will always seem simplest to you.”

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