Occam’s Razor

A few years ago, I ran into a frustrating internet connectivity issue at home. The Wi-Fi stopped working, and being a somewhat competent tech person - I immediately assumed it was a complicated network problem.

I called tech support, ready to dive into the intricacies about routers and I.P configurations. The guy on the other end calmly kickstarted our conversation with “Is your router plugged in?” I was offended. I told him quite defensively that I know all about routers and networks because I'm the boss of the electronic devices in my home. The tech guy calmly said “Can you just please check?” And sure enough - someone had indeed plugged out the router. In my defence - the router was tucked away in a place where nobody usually goes near, so I hadn’t considered it.

In problem solving, there’s often a tendency to overcomplicate things. Sometimes the simplest explanation really is the right one. It’s worth remembering to check the basics first and keep in mind that simplicity over complexity is an effective design principle.