Intro
How often do you think about how you think? If you are like most of us, the answer is hardly ever. Each day we spend most of our time using our cognitive resources on decision-making, problem-solving, and completing simple or complex tasks. Yet, we are not very good at understanding how we do it. It is time to change that and introduce awareness of mental models in practice.
Mental models are our internal representations of how the world works. Understanding how they work can give us a mental toolkit that we can use in practice, when needed, to achieve a better outcome in decision-making or finding solutions.
“Mental Models in Practice” will be a series of articles about the most important (and useful!) mental models. The first episode starts with our most favored one: The Occam’s Razor.
What is Occam’s Razor?
In a nutshell, Occam’s Razor indicates that simple explanations are more favored than complicated ones. This principle of simplicity is often used in science because simple theories are easier to control and prove.
To illustrate how it works, think of the following example. You are planning to buy a new car. You have your preferred brands and the type (i.e. hatchback or SUV). At first sight, it looks like an easy decision, but quickly it becomes very difficult. Once you dig deep into the research, you start to compare multiple cars with their engines, power, and safety systems. In the end, it is an impossible decision to make. I think it is safe to say that those situations happen more often than not. To get out of this dilemma, you can use Occam’s Razor. Instead of looking at all factors, you can just pick the most important ones and decide solely based on them. In that case, you can say that you want a Toyota SUV. Other factors are out of the equation because you simplify the decision process. So far so good?
Those perceptive, might notice that we are conveniently omitting THE challenge that needs to be resolved here. In the Toyota SUV example, the true challenge is to stop analysis and…prioritize. Or to have an illusion of prioritization (yep, this happens too often), and go with a good-enough decision. We will address this challenge with the practical canvas which is a part of this short article.
Dimensions of simplicity
Some may argue that “to simplify” is a too general term. So what is actually behind it? Different aspects of simplicity come into play. Let's go through them:
Time – Determine, which solution, option, or root cause is the fastest to verify or implement?
Probability – Think in terms of probability. Which occurrence is the most probable?
Importance – Biggest impact or value. Which occurrence has the biggest potential? Consider the options that have the ability to get you the closest to the truth, even if you don’t get there after all.
The option that can fulfill all those aspects is the one you should follow or execute. But ensure you don’t overthink it – it’s a razor, not a sniper rifle. You should follow your instinct, instead of checking every aspect in detail. The purpose is to trigger action faster and then, check the outcome of it.
Let’s analyze another example.
How to use it
Think of the following problem. You are running a product, a mobile app that people use to buy tickets for public transport. Recently, for some reason, you observed that users are not willing to rate your app in the app store. There could be several reasons why it happened. Let’s consider some options:
Users not only don’t rate the app but also, they don’t use it
Users are not incentivized enough to leave a comment in the store
Users would like to rate the app, but they can’t access the feature to do it, even though this feature was developed
The rating option is blocked on the app store level
Users are giving ratings, but they are not reflected in the statistics
Which root cause should we investigate in the first place? Occam’s Razor comes to the rescue. By model characteristic – we should ask ourselves, how can we solve this issue using the simplest solution? But what does it mean exactly? Let’s take a deep dive. Of all the listed options, C seems to be our choice based on Occam’s Razor approach. Checking whether our app has a working rating feature is the easiest to check, has the biggest potential, and is the most probable. If that hadn’t been the solution, it would have been worth checking in the first place anyway.
When to use it?
Should Occam’s razor be used on every occasion? It can be, but it shouldn’t. The best use cases are the following:
You need to make a decision quickly, and you don’t have time to consider all the available options
You are trying to solve a problem that increases its complexity with new information coming in.
The issue you are trying to solve is so complex that making an actionable step forward is simply impossible.
In the decision-making context, concentrate on crucial factors to simplify the decision process
Want to give it a try? Try our Occam’s Razor canvas and get unstuck.
