When Simple Explanations Fail

Occam's Razor tells you to prefer simpler explanations, but simplicity has limits. The simplest explanation for a patient's symptoms might be stress, and sometimes that is dangerously wrong. A doctor who always picks the simplest diagnosis will miss rare diseases that look like common ones.

The key insight: Occam's Razor applies only when two explanations fit the evidence equally well. If the complex explanation fits better, complexity wins. Continental drift was long resisted because it seemed far-fetched, yet it explained fossil distributions, matching coastlines, and rock formations that the simpler alternative could not.