Occam’s Razor

Day 98 / 365

Occam’s razor is a principle for problem solving which states that the simplest solutions to a problem is probably the best one.

Versions of this principal appear in different fields of sciences

In Medicine

There’s a variation of Occam’s Razor for medicine known and Zebra. It states that a doctor should reject a complicated and exotic medical diagnosis when a more common explanation is more likely.

“When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras”

In Statistics

A related concept to Occam’s Razor is overfitting. A statistical model can be made to fit better and better on the training data by making it more complex, but it comes price of decreased accuracy on the test data.

How to use the razor without getting cut

Occam’s razor has its own issues and exceptions. So it should be used with care. The principle doesn’t mean to not put any effort at all in developing a solution. What it means is that you shouldn’t complicate the solution more than you have to.

This quote by Einstein sums it up

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The importance of routine