Occam’s Razor The next mental model is one that I already use from time to time, but I thought was worth unpacking a bit more. Occam’s Razor is simply stated as “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily“, but that can be a little hard to apply. I prefer the more useful version of:
Simplest is likely best, but what is viewed as simplest? Simple as in the “Simple Minded?” Great paradigm shifts are often ugly, but in the end the new paradigm accepted is suddenly “simple”. A recent Geological Society of America special papers book was curated to put forth some theories that are " addressing an embryonic, speculative, but observationally supported, new concept worthy of further investigation.” The goal was to put into the scientific literature challenges to “geomyths”, simple explanations cast in the distant past that are heretical to challenge.
Dickinson (2003) perceptively discussed the inappropriate influence of some mythical beliefs in geoscience. He writes “The characteristic style of mythic thinking is to place special emphasis on a selective conjecture...which is thereafter given privileged status over other interpretations... Rejecting any myth typically requires more conclusive evidence than its initial invention employed... When predictions of the extant version of a geomyth fail, the characteristic response is to change underlying assumptions...in ways that keep the core of the geomyth essentially intact.”
Simplest is likely best, but what is viewed as simplest? Simple as in the “Simple Minded?” Great paradigm shifts are often ugly, but in the end the new paradigm accepted is suddenly “simple”. A recent Geological Society of America special papers book was curated to put forth some theories that are " addressing an embryonic, speculative, but observationally supported, new concept worthy of further investigation.” The goal was to put into the scientific literature challenges to “geomyths”, simple explanations cast in the distant past that are heretical to challenge.
Dickinson (2003) perceptively discussed the inappropriate influence of some mythical beliefs in geoscience. He writes “The characteristic style of mythic thinking is to place special emphasis on a selective conjecture...which is thereafter given privileged status over other interpretations... Rejecting any myth typically requires more conclusive evidence than its initial invention employed... When predictions of the extant version of a geomyth fail, the characteristic response is to change underlying assumptions...in ways that keep the core of the geomyth essentially intact.”