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beckhamctoday at 6:23 PM1 replyview on HN

And sadly, in academia, complexity (opposite of Occam's razor) is what gets you published.


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captainblandtoday at 7:28 PM

It's partly because of disagreement about what "complexity" and "simplicity" actually are. Many simple statements are in fact backed by massively complex, unstated assumptions. In attempting to deal with assumptions, scientists necessarily end up having to deal with the complexity involved in that. But the problem is if you don't engage with that, how do you know what is really more conformant with Occam's razor, as opposed to just satisfying what is readily expressed in common language?

Likewise in software development a C developer will say abstractions are not simple, a java programmer will argue that dealing with low levels details is not simple. They're both kinda right but will resort to framings which back their world view.