Occam's Razor

: a scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities.

I’m baffled, but somehow I’ve found myself surrounded by a group of friends who utilize Occam’s Razor daily and are experts at it. They quickly identify the simplest answer (which typically also includes the least amount of work) and push full steam ahead. There is no grey, only black and white. Everything is either a 1 or a 0...speaking in their own language. Despite my continual protests that no, there are some things that do actually require some thought and work, they manage to do just fine with minimal supervision – often to my amazement. For the most part their calm and simple perspective on life and its happenings works out just fine and they are in general, pretty darn satisfied.

In a recent conversation with a good friend who thinks only in terms of money, he said he couldn’t understand why people would buy more problems. I agree, why would I do that – it just doesn’t make sense. But still, l find that I often face an irresistible desire to make absolutely everything far more complex than it ever need be. In essence I willingly pay for more than is necessary on a regular basis. I find this rather ironic considering my rather obsessive tendencies to clip coupons, shop only the clearance racks and pick fights with the cashier who won’t adjust the price of a mis-marked item.

I’m not really sure what motives this overspending and although it strikes me as somewhat irrational, I am somehow convinced things just can’t possibly be interesting or accurate if they are too simple. It could be a ‘woman thing’ or perhaps even a redhead thing but there I am wasting precious time reading between the lines or making up my own lines entirely. (You know that annoying person in the theater who talks back to the screen with their own ‘additions’ to the plot line, yeah that’s me. Sorry.)

Some people might call my spending habits exercising imagination or exploring creative thought processes but most of the time I think it really ends up being just a big headache machine...that I rent. I don’t like headaches and I certainly don’t want to pay for them so I figure I should be more like my simple minded friends (hm that didn’t come out right) and just refuse to buy more complications.

All things being equal, the simplest solution is the best solution...and hopefully the cheapest. Simple = Best. What a simply amazing concept. I will take one Occam’s Razor please…oh look it’s on sale!