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Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Manchester Free Software and Facebook


From: Simon Ward
Subject: Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Manchester Free Software and Facebook
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:20:58 +0000
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14)

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 01:21:56AM +0000, Luke Taylor wrote:
> >              it is your choice of reference, Occam did it before and
> > more people will have heard  (hurd) of him. Personally I have no
> > idols.
> 
> At the risk of getting embroiled in something awful and bitchy....
> I don't think that:

> "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from > 
> asimple system that works"is just a re-statement of " The explanation
> that makes the fewest assumptions is the most likely one to be
> correct." or whatever your version of Occam's razor is. It seems to be
> saying something quite different unless I have really mis-understood
> what John Gall is trying to tell us.

Gall’s quote has a Wikipedia page[1], even if it is a bit brief.  I’m
with you in that it is not a re‐statement of Occam’s razor, I actually
think it’s orthoganal: Gall is saying we should start with a simple
system when building complex systems, not that we should always prefer
simple systems (and not all simple systems work).  As I understand it,
Occam’s razor is about tending towards minimalist theories, and only
extending them if it adds value or meaning.  I can understand why one
might confuse Occam’s razor with (what Wikipedia calls) Gall’s law since
they cover vaguely similar ideas.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall's_law

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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