From Occam's Razor to KISS

From Occam's Razor to KISS

Paul Britt
From the September 2005 Bulletin

TOP TEN REASONS YOU MIGHT BE A GEOLOGIST: *
10. If you have ever had to respond "yes" to the question,
"What have you got in here, rocks?"
next month, reason no. 9.

In my university, structural geology was the class that tested your determination to become a geologist. That class washed out about half of the undergraduate geology majors each year. The class was taught by Dr. Lawrence Ogden, a very straight-laced professor with a sense of humor drier than a vodka martini. Dr. Ogden advocated two principles presented by him in that class have stuck with me that have remained with me ever since, the Law of Superposition (a geological standard), and the principle that usually the simplest answer to a problem was the best answer. 

"Technology enhances our problem-solving capabilities, but it also gives  us the tools to overly complicate the solution."

That second principle, I later came to learn, is known as "Occam's Razor", and is attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th century English Franciscan friar and philosopher from Ockham, a small village in Surrey, England. Occam's Razor states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed, or "one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything." This idea is often called the principle of parsimony. It underlies all scientific modeling and theory building, and it admonishes us to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest one. In any given model, Occam's Razor helps us to "shave off" those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there will be less chance of intro-ducing inconsistencies, ambiguities and redundancies. William of Ockham was accused of heresy by Pope John XXII due to his writings, and he in turn accused the Pope of heresy. He fled to Bavaria and is believed to have been excommunicated, although historical sources vary. A curious contradiction to Occam's Razor lies in the various spellings of Ockham in the historical accounts, including Occam and many others.

William of Ockham would have readily understood the modern corolary to Occam's Razor, the KISS principle, (keep it simple, stupid). This saying is commonly attributed to Albert Einstein, though he is more properly quoted as having said "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler" in an interview. The actual originator of the name "KISS principle" is unknown. Again, the basis of the principle is to seek the simplest solution, though with a twist, as Einstein cautions not to over-simplify.

In so many endeavors, it is human nature to make a problem overly complex. In that structural geology class mentioned earlier, we had a mining problem assigned over a two week period. After the first week,  classmates alarmed me by talking about how difficult the problem was and how many of them had been working on it for hours. I left the class and sat down at the student union to work what appeared to be a very complicated problem. After carefully listing all of the known variables in the problem, the answer became obvious and I solved it in readily. Geological questions, exploration prospects, financial decisions and
organizational structures are all too frequently overly complicated and almost always can be simplified.

I review many drilling prospects during the year, and see a variety of types of prospects, brochures and presentations. In each case, even the most complex prospect can be reduced to a simplest answer. The ones that require more variables than necessary, more leaps of faith or more assumptions than are needed don't pass the KISS test. Technology enhances our problem-solving capabilities, but it also gives us the tools to overly complicate the solution. Some of the best drilling successes that I've been involved with in the last three years were based on simple subsurface well control and a logical and simple presentation of the prospect. It is easy to find a complex answer to a complex problem. It is possible to find a complex answer to a simple problem. The challenge is to find the simplest answer to the complex problem. That goes against human nature.

The Top Ten Reasons You Might Be A Geologist will be presented, one at
a time, each month for all ten issues this year. Please see the
Editor's Letter each month, and feel free to send in your favorite "Reason You
Might Be A Geologist" for possible publication in the list.