Occam's Razor in PMTK
Imagine me sitting in my office. You bring me some fine chocolates and leave.
After an hour you return and the chocolates are gone. A dialog ensues:
Q: Where are the chocolates?
A: A cat came in and ate the chocolates.
Q: But cats don't eat chocolates. How can that be?
A: This cat must have been trained to eat chocolates.
Q: The windows are closed. Where is the cat now?
A: The cat exited before I had closed the windows.
Q: Aren't you allergic to cats? Why aren't you sneezing?
A: It was a hairless cat…
The likeliest explanation in this scenario is that I ate the chocolates and there is no trained hairless cat that eats chocolates.
Along with Russell's Teapot principle for validation, Occam's Razor principle for problem-solving is one of two guiding principles that were instrumental in formulating the Blackblot PMTK Methodology™.
Occam's Razor argues that the simplest explanation is often the most correct, and that the more conditions you need to provide to support your explanation reduce the credibility of that explanation.
Occam's Razor's preference for simplicity to defend an idea is found throughout the Blackblot PMTK Methodology™ and Blackblot's offering, and is evident in the PMTK foundation rules.