Occam's Razor
Occam's Razor
(OP)
Occam's Razor
By John H. Lienhard
The University of Houston
You all know that wonderful old Shaker tune,
'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free;
'Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be
Those lines should make up the first chapter in any book on engineering design. But how do we find the natural threads of simplicity that run through the world around us?
Simplicity in design was a lesson I fell into when the Army drafted me -- after I'd finished college. They assigned me to the Signal Corps Engineering Labs and put me to work designing research equipment. There I met a fine designer, Jules Soled, a person who could clearly teach me things. So I said to him, "Teach me, and I'll work for you." He taught me many things I hadn't learned in school, and his central lesson was always this:
Do a first design. Then attack it. Your first design will be elegant and complicated, but it'll always work better when you get rid of complication. In a really good design you eventually make the very design itself unnecessary. And that is very hard to do because we like complication.
That idea is really quite old. The towering 14th-century philosopher William of Occam put it this way: "Multiplicity ought not to be posited without necessity." William was telling us we should make no more assumptions than we really need to explain anything -- the simplest explanation is best. We call that idea Occam's Razor because it helps slice away the junk in our thinking.
Look at the safety razor. For years designers fought with the problem of loading, mounting, and unloading a blade in a holder. If you're old enough, you'll remember Shick's "push-pull, click-click" advertisement for its mechanism. Keeping the action workable, and the blade solidly in place, was a big problem.
Then some bright person applied Occam's razor to the razor-mounting problem. That designer realized you could simply mold the blade right into the plastic packaging. Now who buys replaceable razor blades? Instead, the blades are set, very solidly and with great precision, right into a cheap throwaway piece of plastic. We've designed blade-holding mechanisms out of existence. That's what Soled meant when he said that good design makes the design itself unnecessary.
But to take that last step -- to walk the plank from a clever design to no design at all -- takes nerve as well as imagination. We're so tempted to look smart by mastering complication instead of simplicity. If we go back to our Shaker tune,
'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free;
the second line says:
'Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be
Good design exacts a price from our egos, but it really is a gift -- it really is freedom -- to find the simplicity in things and finally to reduce an engineering design down to where it ought to be.
By John H. Lienhard
The University of Houston
You all know that wonderful old Shaker tune,
'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free;
'Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be
Those lines should make up the first chapter in any book on engineering design. But how do we find the natural threads of simplicity that run through the world around us?
Simplicity in design was a lesson I fell into when the Army drafted me -- after I'd finished college. They assigned me to the Signal Corps Engineering Labs and put me to work designing research equipment. There I met a fine designer, Jules Soled, a person who could clearly teach me things. So I said to him, "Teach me, and I'll work for you." He taught me many things I hadn't learned in school, and his central lesson was always this:
Do a first design. Then attack it. Your first design will be elegant and complicated, but it'll always work better when you get rid of complication. In a really good design you eventually make the very design itself unnecessary. And that is very hard to do because we like complication.
That idea is really quite old. The towering 14th-century philosopher William of Occam put it this way: "Multiplicity ought not to be posited without necessity." William was telling us we should make no more assumptions than we really need to explain anything -- the simplest explanation is best. We call that idea Occam's Razor because it helps slice away the junk in our thinking.
Look at the safety razor. For years designers fought with the problem of loading, mounting, and unloading a blade in a holder. If you're old enough, you'll remember Shick's "push-pull, click-click" advertisement for its mechanism. Keeping the action workable, and the blade solidly in place, was a big problem.
Then some bright person applied Occam's razor to the razor-mounting problem. That designer realized you could simply mold the blade right into the plastic packaging. Now who buys replaceable razor blades? Instead, the blades are set, very solidly and with great precision, right into a cheap throwaway piece of plastic. We've designed blade-holding mechanisms out of existence. That's what Soled meant when he said that good design makes the design itself unnecessary.
But to take that last step -- to walk the plank from a clever design to no design at all -- takes nerve as well as imagination. We're so tempted to look smart by mastering complication instead of simplicity. If we go back to our Shaker tune,
'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free;
the second line says:
'Tis a gift to come down where you ought to be
Good design exacts a price from our egos, but it really is a gift -- it really is freedom -- to find the simplicity in things and finally to reduce an engineering design down to where it ought to be.





RE: Occam's Razor
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
A good design is one that most easily or simply or efficiently satsifies the design criteria as established at the time.... so all we can really say si we should be looking for new designs to meet the changing criteria.
In today's market we should factor in environmental criteria but back when they were developing the disposable razor the whole world thought everything that could be disposable should be.
But in any event, we have to be careful of what we consider a good design.
Take a look at a pair of scissors. Once upon a time you had two forged pieces, the blade and handle formed from the same raw component and joined by a rivet as the pivot - three pieces.
Today, there are five components. The handles are now separate and usually plastic, moulded to the blades.
So we have an apparently more complex product that is actually cheaper and more efficiently manufactured.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Occam's Razor
We really are crazy. There again we put soapy foam in cans to save people that oh so tiresome effort of applying soap to their faces.
Bah humbug
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Occam's Razor
I have a mental picture of him shaving; Using a single edge stropped razor, mixing up shaving soap in a china cup , and applying it with a Badger bristle shaving brush.
B.E.
RE: Occam's Razor
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Occam's Razor
Hey Greg, I note you kinda ducked the disposable question and simply said you used a brush, soap and water... does that mean...a Bic?
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Occam's Razor
- Steve
RE: Occam's Razor
[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/14uv1is.jpg[/IMG]
And to take simplicity a little further, we could follow the example of my rural Southern ancestors, and use corncobs instead of the carbon footprint heavy toilet paper:
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/24fcxvq.jpg[/IMG]
RE: Occam's Razor
Dang, he ducked the disposable razor issue again! Greg must be a politician.
I won't push any further.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Occam's Razor
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
For those who aren't, or weren't Dr. Demento fanatics:
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/shavingc.htm
http://dmdb.org/lyrics/shaving.cream.html
The fan-created verse about Lincoln Savings seems particularly apropos, right now...
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
RE: Occam's Razor
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.