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Occam's Butter Knife Award

 So many ideas here are so complex. "Keep it simple, stupid."
  (+7, -19)(+7, -19)(+7, -19)
(+7, -19) 		  [vote for,
against]

Why are so many ideas here so busy with technology when simpler solutions are obvivous and at hand? Occam's Butter Knife slices through the overtly complex diatribes to get to the heart of the solution, cheaply and practically. If you win an Occam's Butter Knife award it means you should have thought it out more simply. You get my award with some theory just too complex for it's own good or with a "froggy" idea that misses the simple and obvious point.

There's the challenge! I know youse guys is up to it.

Occam's Razor = the simplest solution is the best solution. Occam's Butter Knife = build, obfusticate and make it more expensive.

"Keep it simple, stupid."

—MauiChuck, May 24 2005


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Annotation:







       Where is the fun in that? Far better to flip reverse (as they yoof say these days) it to "Keep it stupid, simple."   

       Although stupidity should not be at the expense of an actual idea, as may well be the case here, I can't tell.
—calum, May 24 2005
   

       [UB] I must ask - why are you calling him [CatChuck]?
—DocBrown, May 24 2005
   

       Why use a complicated butter knife, when a razor does the job fine?   

       Edit: A blunt razor
—Ling, May 24 2005
   

       All I can say to all of your input is... duhhhh. You have made my point. Awards to all. Thank you very much. Elvis has left the building.
—MauiChuck, May 24 2005
   

       //I can't stand names that are verbs, like Bob, Chuck, Flip, Skip, Rip, Slim and Don.//...

And, of course, bill, bat, nick and hector.
—DrBob, May 24 2005
   

       I don’t understand this idea. First he says it cuts to the heart of the solution, and then he says it obfuscates. This is more of a Schro...no, dammit, I’m not going to use that word.
—ldischler, May 24 2005
   

       [DrBob] Heh.
—DocBrown, May 24 2005
   

       Goodbye Elvis. Why is it that you never hear about Elvis entering buildings? Surely that would be more useful information.
—st3f, May 24 2005
   

       //- and Dick//

Not forgetting, for the Londoners, Sherman.
—DrBob, May 24 2005
   

       Perked your little alien antennae there, hey? LOL Stupid ideas are Stoopid. They do form the bulk of your website. They are, however, entertaining, and you've done over-well in that respect. But I will still shoot down the overly techno-crap ideas, for not seeing the simple solution with the Occam's Butter Knife award.   

       So sue me. Sue me. Shoot bullets through me.
—MauiChuck, May 24 2005
   

       I'm still not clear on what your point is.
—calum, May 24 2005
   

       He wants to be sued, shot, then stabbed with a butter knife. Unless we can come up with something simpler.
—ldischler, May 24 2005
   

       [MauiChuck] would it not be simpler just to point offenders in the direction of Occam's Razor? I'm sensing some hypocrisy in the creation of a new and unnecessary thing to illuminate a point about needless complexity quite adequately made by an existing rule.
—DocBrown, May 24 2005
   

       Well said, DocBrown. I keep trying to find some meaning in the idea but eventually I keep coming to the same conclusion: that MauiChuck's just trolling.
—st3f, May 24 2005
   

       //If you win an Occam's Butter Knife award// Keep it, stupid.
sp. "obvious"
—TolpuddleSartre, May 24 2005
   

       I want to give this idea a butter knife award, based on Doc's explanation. And then, upon realizing the idiocy of making an idea that rejects itself, maybe [CatChuck] will slow down on trying to label halfbakers as halfwits and obsfusticators, lest he engage in self deprication.
—daseva, May 24 2005
   

       [So sue me. Sue me. Shoot bullets through me]   

       I want an Occams Butter Knife award for my solution to the [MauiChuck] quote above.   

       True, I did consider filing papers, but I have strict standards about who I shoot, and [MC] fails to meet the minimum requirements.   

       So, while I'm all for elegant engineering, I'll simply not vote on the idea. Wow, what an OBK solution.   

       Hey, wait a minute. OBK........That's OBiwan Kenobi ! This is an idea about complexity after all !
—normzone, May 24 2005
   

       //Why are so many ideas here so busy with technology when simpler solutions are obvivous and at hand?// RTFM
OT - William's birthplace (now spelt "Ockham") is just ten miles from where I live.
Oh yeah, bone.
—AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 24 2005
   

       Shit. THEY are getting closer.
—daseva, May 24 2005
   

       I noticed the little awards on some ideas. After the first one it got annoying. Too bad I can't think of an obscure award to give you.
—finrod, May 24 2005
   

       //and I can't stand names that are verbs, like Bob, Chuck, Flip, Skip, Rip, Slim and Don// HAHAHAHA! Doesn't take much to upset you does it [UB]? For this I grant you the privilege of addressing me by the name I have gone by since I was ickle: "Wag".   

       And by the by, really simple and good ideas tend to get a couple of croissants and a couple of annos along the lines of "Nice idea", then get ignored. The really fun ones are almost there but leave plenty of scope for improvement, discussion and further overcomplication.
—wagster, May 25 2005
   

       //I can't stand names that are verbs//   

       Well, detly's an adverb.
—Detly, May 25 2005
   

       Please, how do we bore [MauiChuck] within a week, as he predicts?
—david_scothern, May 25 2005
   

       Wondering what david was talking about, I went to Detly’s site, and found there detailed instructions for the construction of a time machine. Intrigued, I built my own, then sealed myself inside with a bottle of Dewar’s. Intending to travel just an hour into the future, I nodded off. When I emerged, the sun was shining, and it was THE NEXT DAY! I turned on the news—the things that had happened! I could hardly wait to travel back and tell people about the future. Unhappily, there was a malfunction of undetermined origin, and now I’m trapped here, trapped in tomorrow.
—ldischler, May 25 2005
   

       You'll not be getting any butter knives with that anno, ld, far too techy.
—blissmiss, May 25 2005
   

       [ldischler] - you seem to be able to communicate to me alright, and I'm living in the present. Presumably this means that the 'bakery is some sort of rudimentary cross-temporal communication device. I'm going to spend tomorrow evening posting the day's stock market figures in a 'bakery idea, and this evening reading them. I'll be rich in the morning.
—wagster, May 25 2005
   

       [ldischler] - you can compensate for your temporal offset by an equal and opposite spatial one. How close do you live to the International Date Line?
—Detly, May 26 2005
   

       "Obfusticate" is an overly complex way of spelling obfuscate.
—bristolz, May 26 2005
   

       How about an award for an idea whose title promises much, but which turns out to be a point-missingly tedious and annoyingly useless piece of shit? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Occam's Pastry Fork.
—egbert, May 26 2005
   

       Obfusticate is obfuscate, obfuscated.
—ldischler, May 26 2005
   

       Simply obfusicating! (Is that legal?)
—blissmiss, May 26 2005
   

       Seems to me that ockham's butterknife would quite resemble a piece of dental floss.
—Blumster, May 26 2005
   

       Rah rah. Guess I got those little grey cells moving in Genius-ville. Have fun. Play. Think. Glad the younger generation isn't as stupid as I had feared. But look up Occam's Razor on Google or ask your Mom.
—MauiChuck, May 27 2005
   

       [MC] I like to think of the HB as an Occam-free zone. (I spent longer than I ought programming in occam in the 80's and 90's, but time and single malt have dulled the pain)
PS. I asked my Mum, and she said she thought they were next to the Bics and the Gilettes in aisle 6.
—AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 27 2005
   

       I fear that I still require simple logic in my speculations. And common sense... whatever that is these days. I'd like ideas that have more meat than fat... althought pork fat is tasty. LOL
—MauiChuck, May 27 2005
   

       This is not Burger King, [MC].
—daseva, May 27 2005
   

       //you shouldn't take this as personal criticism, but can you stop being a dickhead for just five minutes, or fuck off altogether for a few days// Amen.
—coprocephalous, May 27 2005
   

       ////you shouldn't take this as personal criticism, but can you stop being a dickhead for just five minutes, or fuck off altogether for a few days// Amen.// Amen.
—daseva, May 27 2005
   

       <puts away knitting, heads off to pub (sorry, unintended pun) - seen one beheading, seen 'em all!>   

       zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
—po, May 27 2005
   

       Glad youse guys, liked it. Kept those little grey cells popping, didn't it? Lot's of critique and chatter and bashing. Yummy. Wondering how to top it. Hmmmm.
—MauiChuck, May 31 2005
   

       Jesus, I just realized this idea in its entirety. <shudder>
—daseva, May 31 2005
   

       Do you know how to laugh at your ass? Thimk on it. There isn't anything funnier than we can create in our little brains. Go for it!
—MauiChuck, May 31 2005
   

       I once tried laughing at my ass, but she kicked me and galloped off.
BTW [MC}, your week is up - bored yet?
—AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 31 2005
   

       I offer a free trepanning service for anyone who finds themselves saying; "I need that like a hole in the head" Have drill - Will travel - Who's first in line?
—xenzag, Sep 30 2005
   


 

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