In my last post I quoted KC Lemson and she used the phrase:
“So we thought about occam’s razor and realized that ah-ha, the problem is just that the facilities people are dumb”
I realised that I hadn’t a clue what Occam’s Razor was so I’ve done some digging.
Well Occam is a someone – William of Ockham (interesting how words change over time*).
Occam’s Razor (or Ockham’s Razor) is the principle that: “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” Or in slightly longer words from Isaac Newton: “We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” It’s also paraphrased: “All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.”
*My name is another one of those words that has changed over time “Chastney” comes from “chênaie” from the French for Oak Grove and has changed over time to “Cheney”, “Chesney”, “Chesnay”, “Cheyney”, and on it goes.
(Update: Nik pointed out that I assigned KC to the wrong gender, I have modified this. It’s amazing what different one letter can make.)
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Graham Chastney 
Graham …. KC is a woman not a man !!
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Intriguing – the name in French uses the circumflex and yet the name in English – particularly your version has retained the s that the circumflex identifies.
On Occam’s razor – it has been the driver for a lot of science – particularly I remember in particle physics the rounds of theories – the need for simplicity, elegance has taken us from Atoms to electrons and nucleus to…..quarks and gluons.
Einstein has a great quote, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
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I suspect not a day goes by that a new person doesn’t see a reference to me in some electronic medium and assume I am male. I’d do the same were I in their shoes. If I got my feathers ruffled by that, well… I’d have a lot of ruffled feathers. 🙂
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