BRX Pro Tip: Leveraging Occams Razor
Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, I remember hearing about this maybe high school, maybe it was early in college, but how does this Occam’s Razor apply to the business world?
Lee Kantor: Well, I’ve been studying a variety of mental models lately, and Occam’s Razor is always used as an example of a mental model. And Occam’s Razor for people who don’t know, it’s a mental model that says the simplest solution is usually the best one. That’s the premise.
Lee Kantor: So, what happens when you learn about mental models, and this one in particular, all it’s saying is, okay, when I’m faced with a decision, I want the correct decision, so I want to be able to cut through the noise and focus on the fewest assumptions in the most direct path.
Lee Kantor: And in business, a lot of times we don’t do that. We’re kind of overthinking or we’re adding kind of more complexity to make a decision because it seems like, you know, we’re covering all of our bases. Instead, sometimes it’s best to go, well, what would be the simplest solution that would solve the problem? You know, instead of a 12-step process to solve the problem, what’s a two-step process? Is there a straight line here instead of this curvy line? Is there a way of kind of just simplifying something? Does it have to be as complicated as we’re making things and just start trying to prune steps of things?
Lee Kantor: Like get down to the heart of what you’re trying to do? What’s the one thing, that if we do this one thing that that’s going to move the needle right now? Get rid of everything else. Get focused. So, Occam’s Razor kind of forces you to cut through that kind of clutter and just focus in on the best possible solution in the most straightforward way.
Lee Kantor: Now, it’s not really being simplistic, it’s just being efficient and effective. So, try it on. You know, next decision you got, just try to eliminate all the complexity and focus in on the shortest distance between two lines, you know, one straight line.
