A serious debate about occam’s razor, and the frustrations of a psychologist. Our dog got obsessed with shadows because she saw my phone reflection one time then started acting neurotic about it every light and shadow on the wall. But it was a very clear and direct causation. She had no problem with it. She chased the phone light, she became obsessed with it.

I have now been listening for weeks to the others in the house discuss the alternate explanation that it is because she might have cataracts. Every time I say, okay maybe, but you’re taking the explanation an unnecessary step above the very simple correlation we all witnessed in real time, that she got obsessed with my phone light and after noticing it started noticing others and became neurotic about it. She knows where all the shadows will be at every time of the day. And it is impressive. But it is most simply because she got obsessed with paying attention to it or trying to figure it out. It does not at all indicate to us whether she has cataracts, that she is like seeing double shadows and that is freaking her out. One doesn’t need to evoke that extra step to understand it.

Then the neighbor kid comes over and keeps being excitedly jerky around the dogs. I notice the more neurotic dogs doesn’t like it. I tell him, the dogs get anxious by those jerky movements, you need to be careful. He doesn’t stop, the one dog almost nips him, he gets scared, I repeat myself that she is going to act like that if you keep doing these jerky unpredictable movement all the time.

The kids leave. I reiterate to pops that i know he’s a young kid but he needs to understand that that overexcited behavior gets an unwanted response out of them. Pops replies, “yeah, and plus we don’t know how many arms shes seeing when he does that, it could freak her out”.

Do you see what he is doing, and the dangers of not understanding occam’s razor? He has invented this whole idea in his head that he is now supplanting onto multiple different instances to explain her behavior, when we very clearly watched why she did the things she did without having to take it to evoking that extra step in the explanation. You think she has cataracts? She like a 1 year old dog. Go get her checked out if you’re really gonna stand on a hill you made up in your head.

The problem is that when they become so internally convinced of these above and beyond explanations, it can become nearly impossible to even talk to them about what’s really happening and the proper way to address it. I bring it up, he starts rambling about cataracts, double shadows, rainbows, etc. We’re occupying two different perspective spaces completely. One grounded in reality, and one *maybe*

Simplfy it simplify it simplify it. Stop overcomplicating it unless you can prove you have to, that it actually lends to the explanation instead of what we all just witnessed happen.

I try to convince my brother that he can use his phone light to walk up the back stairs at 2AM when he gets home from the bar instead of having to leave the back porch light on for himself between 10-2, but that’s a completely inconceivable alternative…