Difference between revisions of "Simplicity"
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| + | Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.<ref>Albert Einstein said something like that, unfortunately, it was not that simple. He said "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience" in ''On the Method of Theoretical Physics, the Herbert Spencer Lecture'', (1933-06-20) Oxford University’ Press</ref> | ||
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==Context== | ==Context== | ||
| − | It’s really hard to fix or | + | It’s really hard to fix, analyze or explain a complex solution. |
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| + | Engineers just use an aphorism: Keep it Simple Stupid; called the KISS principle. | ||
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| + | ==Problem== | ||
| + | This quote makes a very good statement of the problem. | ||
| + | <blockquote> It may seem natural to think that, to understand a complex system, one must construct a model incorporating everything that one knows about the system. However sensible this procedure may seem, in biology it has repeatedly turned out to be a sterile exercise. There are two snags with it. the first is that one finished up with a model so complicated that one cannot understand it; the point of a model is to simplify, not to confuse. The second is that if one constructs a sufficiently complex model one can make it do anything one likes by fiddling with the parameters: a model that can predict anything predicts nothing.<ref>John Maynard Smith +1, ''The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language'' (2000-11-26) ISBN 978-0192862099</ref> | ||
| + | </blockquote> | ||
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| + | ==Solution== | ||
| + | For this wiki we will be content to ask the question: How many words does it take to describe the solution, not counting the UX? | ||
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| + | With a solution like that it would be impossible to add anything that could make it better without invalidating the solution itself. | ||
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| + | "It seems that perfection is attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."<ref>Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (1939)</ref> | ||
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| + | ==References== | ||
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| + | [[Category:Glossary]] | ||
Latest revision as of 19:18, 20 August 2018
Full Title or Meme
Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.[1]
Context
It’s really hard to fix, analyze or explain a complex solution.
Engineers just use an aphorism: Keep it Simple Stupid; called the KISS principle.
Problem
This quote makes a very good statement of the problem.
It may seem natural to think that, to understand a complex system, one must construct a model incorporating everything that one knows about the system. However sensible this procedure may seem, in biology it has repeatedly turned out to be a sterile exercise. There are two snags with it. the first is that one finished up with a model so complicated that one cannot understand it; the point of a model is to simplify, not to confuse. The second is that if one constructs a sufficiently complex model one can make it do anything one likes by fiddling with the parameters: a model that can predict anything predicts nothing.[2]
Solution
For this wiki we will be content to ask the question: How many words does it take to describe the solution, not counting the UX?
With a solution like that it would be impossible to add anything that could make it better without invalidating the solution itself.
"It seems that perfection is attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."[3]
References
- ↑ Albert Einstein said something like that, unfortunately, it was not that simple. He said "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience" in On the Method of Theoretical Physics, the Herbert Spencer Lecture, (1933-06-20) Oxford University’ Press
- ↑ John Maynard Smith +1, The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language (2000-11-26) ISBN 978-0192862099
- ↑ Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (1939)
