Saturday, June 22, 2024

Occam's Razor Is Now a Verb

Yes, I've made "Occam's Razor" a verb.

If I could talk to my 17-year old self, I would tell him, "Be sure to Occam's Razor your way through life." 

Let's use health and fitness as an example, shall we? The internet will literally inundate you with this program or that program for getting lean, this program or that program for building muscle, and so on and so forth. Who should I listen to? Occam's Razor states that you want to cut out everything that's unnecessary because the simplest way to get to the goal is the best. If you only need need 2 steps you don't have to make it 6 steps. So you always want to ask yourself, "What's the simplest way of getting there?" This will minimize decision fatigue, that is, minimize the amount of choices so that you Occam's Razor your way forward and get the simplest path to your goal. (Paralysis by analysis is a real thing.)

Getting into shape boils down to 4 simple things:

1. Building muscle = weight training.

2. Losing body fat = staying in a caloric deficit.

3. Eating healthy food = avoiding processed foods.

4. Rest and recovery = getting enough sleep.

That's it. My own fitness program basically boils down to 2 things:

1. Working out at the gym 3 days a week.

2. Walking for 30 minutes each day.

As you can see, simplicity is the key. Just forget all the "bro science" junk and eat well and exercise consistently and you will see progress. If you can, find a peaceful and easier way to take the journey. 

Anyway, thanks for reading.