KISS

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My mother loves mantras. One of her favorites is: KISS or Keep It Simple, Stupid. Throughout my life, she has applied KISS to many different situations. For example, she knows I love to plan fun events for friends and family. She also knows, however, that I like to go overboard and make really complex plans. She would have to repeatedly say, "KISS, Sarah, KISS!" Another example is when I was acting like the typical teenage girl and overanalyzing the actions of the boy I liked, she would tell me to calm down and KISS. Lastly, whenever I worried about a paper and getting a good grade, her advice would be KISS. SOCIALLY AWKWARD PENGUIN

Psychology 1001 taught me KISS is more universal than I once thought. Besides my mother, psychologists use KISS in the context of Occam's Razor. This guideline in psychology refers to when "[...] two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon [...]" (25), we should generally use the simpler one. By not getting muddled in the details of a complex explanation, we can embrace simplicity when considering explanations. While this method is not always correct, it has proven to be more reliable than not.

So the next time you're analyzing the "true" meaning behind someone's words, think KISS and apply Occam's Razor to your everyday life.

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Great post. What I have realized is that a lot of people over analyze a situation when there is always a simpler explanation for things. I feel like a lot of people come up with these complicated explanations for things because they want to possibly look smart in front of their peers.

I really enjoyed reading your post. I also like the KISS that your mom taught you. I agree that when people over exaggerate things are have too many things going on at once, it is best to just be simple and not look for the complicated solutions. Although it may not always work, it defiantly is a good rule of the thumb to go by.

This is an awesome post, especially with the penguin picture! The KISS that your mom taught you is absolutely hilarious, but at the same time, very useful. It is true that sometimes the simpler explanation for things is a lot easier to comprehend then a very complex one. I feel like being a women, we over analyze and like to complicate things more that we should. Thinking about Occam's Razor from this Psychology class will help me next time I want to try and make things more complicated than they should be.

Before this course, I definitely didn't give the idea of Occam's Razor, or "KISS," enough credit. I too tend to be long-winded and over-analyze many situations. But logically, it does seem best to seek out a more simple solution. Plus, the more complicated a scenario, the more unlikely I believe it is to be true. Also, a more complicated scenario might also be a more extraordinary one, so it could fit into the scientific principle that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I really like how you applied something from your own life to a very important feature in our psychology class. Occam's Razor has been prevalent in every chapter and helps us cut off the excess stuff and only focus on what is important. Nice job.

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This page contains a single entry by Sarah published on April 29, 2012 5:51 PM.

Where do YOUR parents fit? was the previous entry in this blog.

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