Like all sharp objects, Occam’s razor can cut both ways. In some cases, the complex solution will lead to a better result. Don’t use Occam’s razor to validate the natural human craving for simplicity in the face of nuance and complexity. Don’t confuse a simple solution, as H. L. Mencken cautioned, with one that is “neat, plausible, and wrong.”55 Even as you seek to simplify, remain open to new facts that complicate matters. As the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead put it, “Seek simplicity and distrust it.”56
