Simple

This morning, as I was reading a New York Times article about Google vs. the Chinese government, I came across something peculiar, a principle called Occam's razor.

Occam's razor is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one. When competing hypotheses are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selection of the hypothesis that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities while still sufficiently answering the question. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

That is an awful lot of scientific speak for suggesting that you should just keep it to the facts. No assumptions or jumping to conclusions. It struck a chord with me. So when I find myself attributing causes behind events (such as why someone hasn't returned my call), I am reminded to stop and ask myself, "what are the facts?" and "would I bet my life on it?" And then I quickly realize that there are an infinite amount of reasons why something may have happened, but all I can conclude has to be based on just the facts. Simple.