all 8 comments

[–]zyxzevn[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

The concept of the spherical cow, is the idea of making things simple.

By making reality simple and abstract, we can create a simple model that we can do calculations with. The spherical cow is a physics model of a real cow.

It can also kill a cow.

We can also make things too simple, and come to the totally wrong conclusions.
This happens far more often than people think.

[–]bobbobbybob 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

assumptions make an ass out of u and me

[–]oaf 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

So in really simple terms, don’t over complicate things otherwise you’ll end up at a terribly wrong conclusion?

[–]zyxzevn[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Exactly that, but in reverse.

[–]oaf 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Right I get it, thanks.

[–]sixdoublefive321 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You might be familiar with the concept...and I apologize if you are and for repeating an idea...but I thought you might find this relevant and interesting to you.

[–]oaf 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No I wasn’t familiar so thanks for linking that. It’s an interesting read. In particular the quote “one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions”.

[–]danuker 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Credit to Abstruse Goose, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.