Do you also know about these “Razor” principles?
Two simple life hacking techniques to infuse a positive & productive perspective..
Just wanted to quickly jot down my thoughts on something super interesting recently. I’ve been reading up on this and been trying to embed it into my mindset.
Long story short, I was at a family get together some weeks before where one of my cousins spoke about the two razor Principles — Occam’s and Hanlon’s. The more I understood them and implemented them, certain aspects of the day just felt getting easier and smoother. Not kidding.
and here’s what they are:
Hanlons Razor:
This principle is a way of eliminating unlikely reasons and “attributions” for human behaviour and its consequences.
In simple terms it states that when someone goofs up or bungles up a situation, dont attribute that behaviour to ill will or malice but to just basic stupidity or silliness. Don’t completely rule out the malice but assume silliness to be the number one reason.
eg. if a colleague forgets to call you to update you on a meeting or change in deliverable, it might be they’re just forgetful and clumsy and not out stabbing your back. You shouldn't fret over it too much but rather work on what you can do next. Your boss may have written a one word message because they were driving their car and not because he/she doesn't like you.
I know its so much easier said than done, but it infuses positivity into your mind and a positive mind is unbeatable.
Occam’s Razor
This is in fact a problem-solving principle that I was vaguely aware of since a while. However the interest to understand and implement it is fairly new.
The Occam’s razor is a problem solving technique or principle which talks about handling situations with multiple hypothetical solutions. It just states that when you face a situation where multiple hypothertical answers present themselves , go for teh one where youve made teh least number of assumptions.
eg. Your client has been re-scheduling your meetings for a few days now. If you think of a “why” , a number of answers spring up — “Is he not having the power to make the decision”, “Is he out of money” , “Is the competitor wooing him better”, “is he busy”. “ Is he on vacation” etc. Now based on the entire knowledge and conversation history , assume the one which makes most sense and work through that.
and to conclude, yes, I understand that these are just guiding principles to go by and not absolute in any sense.
Do let me know what you think of these ? :)
