Occam’s razor (also spelled Ockham’s razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham (ca. 1285–1349). It is often expressed in Latin as entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, or “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.”
An alternative formulation is pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate — “plurality should not be posited without necessity” — which is my preferred version.
Occam’s Razor resonates with me deeply because we live in an increasingly complex world where we tend to overcomplicate our understanding of events and outcomes — in our case, data and analysis. Yet in almost every instance, suboptimal outcomes stem from the complexity we ourselves introduce through assumptions and hypotheses.
I’ll admit I’m taking some poetic license in my interpretation, but Occam’s Razor is always at the back of my mind as a reminder to simplify. The simpler the explanation, the more likely it is to be the better one.
For those of us in the decision-making field, I recommend applying Occam’s Razor as a “smell test” when working through complex data sets.
For more background on the principle, see its Wikipedia entry or Skeptic’s Dictionary.
