This is for you if:
You are interested in design.
You don’t want to get anxious the next time your date gets late.
What? Don’t worry, this will make sense in a while.
Imagine you are on a date and your partner gets late. One explanation for this is that they got stuck in traffic and will reach within a few minutes. Another explanation could be that they got robbed and now they can’t make it to the date.
Out of the above two, which one sounds right? Both?
Let’s figure out the answer using Occam’s Razor. Are you ready, my dear Watson?
This is going to be interesting.
Before we can use Occam’s razor, let's start with understanding what Occam’s razor is, like obviously. Occam’s Razor, also called the law of economy or the law of parsimony, states that entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. It is often paraphrased as the following—‘the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
This rule of thumb is attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian. In simple terms, explanations that have fewer assumptions are the simplest explanations, and they are often right.
Following is the definition of an assumption: a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.
Let’s use this philosophical razor to find out what happened to your date.
The first explanation was that they got stuck in traffic and will reach within a few minutes. We can start by breaking this statement down into pieces of information you already have and the assumptions you need to make in order to prove this explanation right.
Information you already have:
Your partner is coming by road.
There are other people on the road.
Traffic jams can make people late
Assumptions that you need to make:
There’s a lot of traffic on the way to the venue
Moving on to the next explanation: They got robbed and now they can’t make it to the date. My god! Overthinking is not good, I tell you.
Breaking down the above explanation into information you already have and assumptions that you need to make will truly reveal which explanation is simple and right.
Information you already have:
Your partner is coming by road.
Assumptions that you need to make:
The road is unsafe.
There’s no rush on the road.
They got robbed. (the biggest assumption.)
To believe the first explanation, we need to assume just 1 thing and add it to the information we already have, whereas in the second explanation, we need to assume 3 things and add them to the information we already have. Also, these assumptions are not very likely to be true.
Now, according to Occam's Razor, explanations that make you assume the most are complex and mostly wrong. The first explanation is simple and makes you assume the least; hence, the first explanation is right. So don’tpanic;, your date is safe.
Occam’s razor has applications in a variety of domains, ranging from philosophy to medicine to AI and design as well.
Now you know how the ‘challenging assumptions’ method made its way into design thinking. But that’s not it. Occam’s razor is integrated much deeper into design thinking and this deserves another round of discussion.
While I have your attention, I would like to state the fact that Occam’s Razor is not a law but a rule of thumb, as denoted earlier. There is a scope of debate and one should not follow Occam’s Razor blindly, as sometimes complex solutions are the right ones and rejecting them might give you the wrong explanations.
One major aspect of implementing Occam’s Razor is to get as much data as possible in order to shave the assumptions off and make the best use of this razor.
I mean, you could have called your date to ask them what’s going on and that would have helped you rule out wrong assumptions. But yeah, I understand you don’t want to give the wrong signals on the first date.
Occam’s Razor is a philosophical razor and having it in your arsenal as a designer can help you make the right decisions and fewer assumptions. This blog was an introduction to Occam's Razor. See you next time as we explore the application of this rule of thumb in detail.
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