Recently, I felt off. Nothing dramatic, but I didn’t feel sharp, I was less energetic, and my patience was short. I just wasn’t my usual self. I immediately started building theories: stress, hormones, something deeper I hadn’t uncovered yet. I started looking for a sophisticated explanation.
Then, almost reluctantly, I asked myself a simpler question: How’s your sleep? Again, nothing dramatic, but a series of small things that led to inconsistency. Late nights, screens too close to bedtime, and a night or two out with friends and a couple of drinks, all of which I had justified as fine. But it wasn’t disciplined. And within two weeks of tightening it up, most of what felt mysterious… wasn’t.
There’s a principle called Occam’s Razor, the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Not always, but more often than not. And while the principle is proven, we tend to resist it. Simple feels unsatisfying; it doesn’t flatter our intelligence or give us something complex to solve. As leaders, we’re wired to think strategically.
We analyze, optimize, and forecast. So, when the answer is basic, improve your sleep patterns through better discipline, we almost distrust it. Surely it can’t be that straightforward. But often it is.
Instead, we look for complexity. Surely, our relationship issue is layered, deep-rooted, and psychological, although we haven’t even had a direct conversation with our partner about it. We assume the business challenge is structural, although we’ve drifted from consistent execution. We assume performance dips require innovation when they might require focus and repetition. Complexity feels smart. It feels earned. Basic feels ordinary. But ordinary, done consistently, is powerful.
Our brains are prediction machines. They look for patterns that confirm our internal story. And if the explanation is too obvious, too familiar, we glide right past it. Familiarity makes us blind. We search for depth while ignoring discipline.
What I’ve started asking myself when something feels stuck is this: What’s the simplest explanation that fits the facts? Not the most interesting explanation. Not the one that makes me feel clever. The simplest one.
Occam’s Razor isn’t about avoiding nuance. It’s about removing unnecessary complications. It’s about humility and admitting that sometimes the breakthrough isn’t hidden. It’s just sitting there, waiting for us to stop overthinking long enough to see it.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin
Where in your life might you be searching for a sophisticated solution when the obvious one is quietly waiting?
If something surfaced while reading this, I’d genuinely be interested to hear what it was.
Have a simple weekend.
-Vijay