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Reductionism is a hazard, but overcomplication can also be an unhealthy sign. Epicycles come to mind.
by HPsquared 3y ago
Reductionism is a hazard, but overcomplication can also be an unhealthy sign. Epicycles come to mind.
- A_Duck 3y agoPerfect example. For minds trained on physics and chemistry where mathematics is unreasonably effective, epicycles are a 'code smell' to be eliminated — there must be a simpler expression of the system. This instinct has to be discarded when working with messy complex human beings.
- HPsquared 3y agoThere are a lot of faulty heuristics indeed, reductionism is only one. Sometimes human behaviour can be explained better, that is more reliably and with less "over-fitting", by a simple model with the right perspective and vocabulary, than a really complicated explanation that is missing a key insight.