KEW Episode 80: Simplicity, Parsimony, and Occam’s Razor

Thank you for following along as we gear up for the ‘how-to’ section of the Are vs Should Problem.

We spent over 30 Episodes outlining various elements within the Are vs Should Problem. Turns out this fairly universal issue has a lot going on inside. Because I let these Episodes unfold organically, I didn’t know what to expect. The same thing is happening as we transition from the ‘whats’ to the ‘how-tos’.

In my experience as an academic scientist, I came to rely on a non-traditional approach to my experimentation. I wanted to take the simplest, most sincere, and least complex approach I could to answering a problem. In part, this strategy aimed to oppose something I saw a lot of among my colleagues and peers: smoke screening. I saw a lot of academic research that was overly and unnecessarily complex. I always suspected that this strategy aimed to confuse the reader and distract from what was typically pretty weak science.

I try my best to aim for the least number of parts, the easiest approach, and tend to favor the explanation that has the fewest parts. I find this attractive and neat. But most importantly, I find these types of approaches and explanations to be the most useful.

So in this Episode I lay out the approach I will take in the following Episodes 81-??? where I explain what I have learned with respect to ‘living a better life’ or ‘reducing the struggle’ or ‘living more in the are and less in the should’. I hope you find it helpful in deciding if this is something you’re interested in or something you think might agree with your preferred way or learning and understanding.

Podcast audio can be downloaded here to listen to in your browser:

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Unfortunately, I was unable to load my video so the YouTube video is just an audio file, but can be found here: https://youtu.be/4HTy-q8PMT0

Upcoming Episodes will address The Algorithm and Meditation.