Welcome to The Door to E. A series-style newsletter for people obsessed with exploring, explaining, and expanding ideas to unlock human potential. Each week, I publish around 3 chosen series that share ideas, experiences, and stories to help you design your life.
This essay is a part of the Mental Model Wednesday series.
Thank you for reading, and please forward this to anyone who you think needs to walk on the journey.
Dear Friends, Seekers, and Everybody else…
When I was still an undergraduate, I found HOUSE M.D. A medical drama with a broken doctor deals with cases no one else could.
And in one such instance, he mentions Occam's razor, which I thought was an amazing theory and model for problem-solving at the time. Only to realize you can't really go all the way on that hypothesis.
Because the basic hypothesis it gives you is:
If an event has 2 possible explanations, the one that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.
If only the world were so simple if only people were so simple to have this be true in its entirety.
Why simple isn't always right?
The origin of the "Law of Parsimony" or Occam's Razor came in the 14th Century when science and psychology hadn't been studied to the extent they have today.
It's called a Razor because it cuts away competing solutions, keeping the simplest one to be considered as a solution. And it's used by scientists today to choose theories too. But as I just said, the world and people in it aren't simple.
So we are left 3 problems starting from that statement alone
There is no evidence that the WORLD has a simple explanation
Practically, we have no way to compare explanations and solutions, with all things being equal
So that is to say, Occam's razor would only work in a specific setting with drawn-out constraints, boundaries, and environments.
But in 2008, Professor Kristina Gua designed the DECIDE framework. A six-step framework that takes Occam's razor into its core and still manages to CUT the fallacies.
DECIDE Framework
Step 1: Define the problem
You can't solve a problem if you don't know what it is. And I remember something my father once told me about MATH (I used to hate math):
A problem written down is a problem half-solved. Cause you will find the clues to your answer in it.
So in that spirit, figure out
What is the problem?
Why should anything be done at all?
What should or could be making this happen?
But going at this with open-ended questions will lead to a disaster
Step 2: Establish criteria
The quickest way to get cut by Occam's Razor is by not setting parameters for your tests and experiments.
What is the range you want your result to be in?
What is the final goal to achieve with your decision?
What don't you want to change?
What is the thing you want to avoid at all costs?
Constraints mean creativity. Creativity means Possibilities.
The more possibilities you have, the higher your chances of a good answer. But you must sift through them to find the right solution that fits the bill.
Step 3: Consider alternative
The moment you have set up a constraint, your brain will rattle off a bunch of solutions. All with a high likelihood of success.
What are the possible choices that meet the criteria?
Have you considered all the factors that affect the alternatives?
Here you are going to produce some good and ugly solutions, but don't think about the effectiveness of those right now. The point here is to only generate a bunch of solutions that you can run through.
Step 4: Identify the best alternative
Most of the solutions/alternatives that you would come up with will be based on your experience, intuition, and experimentation.
But you can identify the best one with a mark-off approach.
The way I've done it or have done it before starting this, make a table with criteria in the top row and solutions in a column, and just test each solution for the number of criteria it would check off.
The more ticks you get, the better the solution.
Step 5: Develop and Implement a plan of action
Having a solution at your disposal doesn't mean that you have the right solution right now. You need to test it.
While I don't think having a detailed plan of action does anybody any good, prepare a general guideline to implement and test your solution.
How is the plan of action going to be implemented?
What are the resources you need to implement the solution?
Having the basics at your hand helps you know what you need, what you are doing, and what you should change if the time comes.
This brings us to the last step…
Step 6: Evaluate the solution
I've just been warming up to this idea that my school and college had burnt out of me but...
There is more than one right answer!
Just because something works, doesn't mean that it should be done without looking at the tradeoffs. Yes, your solution is working, but is it going to work long term?
What could go wrong?
Can this be sustained for a long time?
Do I see myself doing this 5 years down the line?
What can be done to protect the problems?
Do I need a second opinion?
This rather specific process lets you find more creative, practical, and right answers while taking the complexities and changing circumstances into consideration.
Final Words…
Problem-solving is not a one-and-done deal to begin with. Not because you can't have all the answers, but because you can't account for all the changes in circumstances.
When the time comes, you will have to rethink everything about your problems anyway. However, it is a good practice to know how to find solutions to changing criteria and circumstances.
Here's a quick recap of the process again
Define the problem
Establish the criteria
Consider alternative
Identify the best alternative
Develop & implement a plan of action
Evaluate the solution
Just know that your decisions will have consequences, so it's important to use second-order thinking when you formulate your solution.
Not to be perfect, but to minimize the possibility of mistakes.
That's it for today
until next time
Be weird and curiosity
S
P.S. If you are interested in info products and building an information-led creator business, check out Wide Thinker Letters. Series issues go out every Sunday.
If you haven't already, subscribe to the newsletter and hop on the learning journey with me to unlock your potential.