Occam’s Razor
Do you ever find yourself immobilized in deciding when faced with multiple alternatives? I certainly do and I have found that Occam’s Razor has been helpful.
Merriam-Webster defines Occam’s Razor this way –
a scientific and philosophical rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities
Wow – can you make sense of that? I like this simple definition: the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex. Nice. Now join Occam’s Razor with KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid – and life gets a little less complicated. Reminds me of a scene from Wedding Crashers, where the dad, Secretary Cleary, says to his daughter (in my best Christopher Walken imitation), “Look... we have no way of knowing what lays ahead for us in the future. All we can do is... use the information at hand to make the best decision possible. It's gonna be fine. Your whole life is gonna be fine.”
In my design engineer career, I used weighted decision matrices (WDM) many times as a method in decision making when faced with numerous suitable solutions. WDMs are a proven technique that allows one to focus on the facts and remove emotion and bias. So, why do I experience “immobilization” in my personal life? The answer for this FOR ME became clear in doing the 16Personalities Assessment by NERIS Analytics. I capitalized and bolded “FOR ME” so I can clarify that the reason “FOR YOU” is likely different!
My whole life I have found myself in a leadership position – responsible for the coordination and execution of XYZ. This is true for career, family, and service positions. It has been a love-hate situation for me. I am happy to lead and I have, in general, the skill sets needed. The negative is that I am tortured by the experience – often times reliving the experience and what didn’t go quite right over and over in the middle of the night. The 16Personalities Assessment helped me come to grips on why the torture. 16Personalities classified me as an ADVOCATE. Here is a summary:
The Advocate personality type is very rare, making up less than one percent of the population, but they nonetheless leave their mark on the world. Advocates have an inborn sense of idealism and morality, but what sets them apart is that they are not idle dreamers. These individuals are capable of taking concrete steps to realize their goals and make a lasting positive impact.
People with this personality type tend to see helping others as their purpose in life. Advocates can often be found engaging in rescue efforts and doing charity work. However, their real passion is to get to the heart of the issue so that people need not be rescued at all.
And now, the part of the description that adds the tension – that part that addresses the emotional tension I face at 3AM as I ruminate on the options and, even worse, relive what my decision did to the other person:
Advocates find themselves up against conflict and criticism. Their sensitivity forces these personalities to do everything they can to evade these seemingly personal attacks. When the circumstances are unavoidable, however, they can fight back in highly irrational, unhelpful ways.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” I will continue to be an Advocate in my professional and personal life. The 16 Personalities assessment helped me to understand my Advocate personality and associated traits and tendencies. I now have the tools and tricks to deal with the issues I face.
My question for you: What would 16Personalities classify you and what would you learn from your assessment?