Our choices in life and career are influenced by our attitude and outlook. Often we are confused and that’s when we need some tools that we can use to make better choices, to be more effective. One such tool is called a “philosophical razor”.
A philosophical razor is a ‘heuristic’ that helps you shave off unnecessary ideas. Simply put, a heuristic is a mental shortcut that helps you simplify decision-making or solve a problem.
Both of these heuristics can play an important role in decision-making if used judiciously. These razors are just a thumb rule. Unlike laws that are universal and backed by solid evidence, heuristics is a common sense approach and is flexible.
Applying a 14th-century razor in 2023
The principle of Occam’s Razor says: The simplest explanation is often the most correct one.
This heuristic is also called ‘the rule of parsimony’ since it advocates that you must be frugal with the resources you have. In other words, this advises you to be economical in your scientific, economic or philosophical explanations at work or in life.
William Occam, a monk from 14th-century England is credited with this heuristic. Occam was the place where he was born and he was famous for his arguments with the Pope.
Let us try to apply the rule.
Assume that you are investigating why your company’s product has failed in the market. Naturally your first step will be to talk to consumers, business partners and the employees concerned with the product.
Subsequently, you generate a list of reasons for the product failure. The list could be either empirical — backed by experience or observations or logical.
Occam’s Razor postulates that the most probable reasons why the product failed would be the ones that make the least amount of assumptions and the ones with the least complexity. Now, in order to fix these problems, you need to again make a comprehensive list of things that you can do to fix the product. The ideal solution according to Occam’s Razor would be the simplest one that uses the least amount of resources.
Of course, the most important thing is to ensure that the list you create is comprehensive, else you may just be choosing the simplest but the wrong solution.
This principle is used widely by the scientific community which seems odd because it was promoted by a man who believed in faith.
Hanlon’s Razor: The world is not against you
Imagine that you are in charge of an important project and the deadline is fast approaching. If the project implementation is successfully executed, you will be seen as a champion.
However, you have not received a few critical inputs from your colleague needed for its successful implementation which were requested in advance.
Suddenly, you remember past instances when the colleague questioned some of your actions in team meetings. You also remember that both of you are in contention for a promotion this year.
Anxiety and anger take over and you decide to write a strong email to them.
While you are composing the email, the colleague informs you over the phone that the inputs are ready and sends you the same. She also apologises for missing to reply as she had not noticed the mail earlier.
Hanlon’s Razor is a principle that states: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness or incompetence.
This principle tells you that if something goes wrong or doesn’t go according to plan, it’s important to not jump to conclusions and assume that someone did it on purpose or out of ill will.
If you happen to like someone at your workplace you will be more empathetic and attribute their mistakes to human nature. This explains why mistakes made by politicians and corporations that we don’t like seem bigger than they are.
Assumption of malicious intent causes unnecessary tension at the organisational and individual levels.
While team building is used to build trust amongst individuals belonging to the same department or different departments, it needs a lot of mental conditioning at an individual level to give the benefit of the doubt to a mistake or forgetfulness at the organisational level. It takes a mental effort to correct oneself at an individual level. A part of that mental effort would be to improve communication and ask for regular feedback.
In the end, the difference between a good and an average career depends on our ability to make the right decisions or solve problems with or without adequate information.
In the real world, business leaders have advised people to assume positive intent and look for simple solutions. You can use these philosophical razors and push your career to greater heights.
(The author is a marketing consultant)