Occam's Razor

I first heard the term "Occam's Razor" about 15 years ago. What it means is that given various explanations for an event, the simplest, least complex, explanation is probably true. Occam was a 13th century logician and the razor part comes to play in regard to "shaving" away unnecessary complications.

I thought of this today when I was discussing the caterer I use for Oshkosh. I use the downhome, local, family-owned working class caterer who have always done right by me. Always just plain delicious, homecooked food, on time, pleasant, affordable. Also available is catering services from a upper-end hotel chain. People often (mistakeningly) pick this hotel chain for their event, thinking that it will be fancy and wonderful. However the food is bad and the service is worse. Someone today, who agrees with me about my caterer, says, "That's because the hotel is a hotel; it's not a caterer."

Wow, that's a simple explanation... just like Occam said.

Later this morning I stopped for lunch and started doing some housework -- put in some laundry, sorted a bunch of papers, cleaned off a horizontal surface where mail tends to gather -- and I was on a roll. I wondered why I was so motivated until I realized the simplest explanation -- the Occam's Razor explanation -- which is that I have more energy at 1 o'clock in the afternoon than I do at 8 o'clock at night after working all day and then eating dinner.