It is used everyday by scientists to choose between competing theories. It says that other things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones. Occam’s razor is pretty easy to understand. Conflating simple with correct can be dangerous, so it’s important to know the limitations of this approach. Both our minds and the world are complex machines which cannot be grasped by applying such a simplistic approach to decision making. We don’t want to make things more complicated than they need be. By slicing and leaving aside more complex theories, it metaphorically acts as a razor. Why is Occam’s razor called a razor? This mental model cuts away competing solutions, leaving the simplest-and supposedly most likely-explanation in place. But, before we move on, let’s address your burning question. Occam’s razor is a popular mental model, to say the least. William of Ockham’s idea later became the first rule of philosophical reasoning in Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton: “We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” Even Albert Einstein created his own, more nuanced version of Occam’s razor: “It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.” Aristotle wrote: “Other things being equal, we may assume the superiority of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses.” Ptolemy stated: “We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible.” While William of Ockham is often credited with the formulation of this mental model, it’s an ancient one. Also called the “law of parsimony”, Occam’s razor is a mental model which states that “it is futile to do with more what can be done with fewer”-in other words, the simplest explanation is most likely the right one.

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