Occam's Razor and Applications from Medicine to Penal Systems

Occam’s razor (also known as the “law of parsimony”) is a problem-solving principle which serves as a useful mental model. A philosophical razor is a tool used to eliminate improbable options in a given situation. Occam’s is the best-known example.
Occam’s razor can be summarized as follows:
Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected...

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” as Einstein famously said.

Of course all of this, as well as use of mental models in general, is a whole lot harder than talking about it.

Using distraction to your advantage. Techniques from ADHD

I don't have ADHD, but I am as subject as everyone to the constant barage of information cloaked as "opportunities".  Somehow, you can't help but think that if you just focus, or do another online class, or listen to another podcast, you too can find fulfillment, or peace or money etc...

Until this happens, the distracted can always practice ‘learning to learn’, as my psychologists used to call it. For me, this began in the 1990s with colour-coded folders and a planner, and has since grown into a sprawling Google calendar. Meticulously, I track each hour of my working life (and many personal hours, too). Obsessively, I declutter to avoid visual distraction. I return to my to-do lists over and over during the day.
I have also learned to make space for distraction – which can, after all, also mean being alive to one’s surroundings, curious about new possibilities, and multifaceted in one’s interests. Getting distracted (even taking note of which interesting distractions to return to later) has helped me think about learning differently: not all learning requires sustained focus, some forms of creative and conceptual thinking benefit from repeatedly returning to a topic so as to view it differently each time.