If you have information that simplicity works good in the field of application then the success should be attributed to this information rather than simplicity per se. There are no free lunches and the prior information about the fittness of simple theories is your toll for being able to occam your way forward.
The point is that two theories of incomparable theory branches can't be ordered with occam but one being an elaboration of another (ie up or down the same branch) can. Other uses are better understood as unrelated to this idea but still falsely attributed to it.
If you have information that simplicity works good in the field of application then the success should be attributed to this information rather than simplicity per se.
Why? Is this really just an attempt to emphasize that in some domains insisting on simplicity may be counterproductive? While that's true theoretically, I feel like such domains are highly rare in practice, and most people are not overdemanding of simplicity. Thus such an argument feels more like an attempt to carve out in theoretical space a highly applicable get-out-of-jail-free card than an attempt to guide arguments closer to truth.
This essay claims to refute a popularized understanding of Occam's Razor that I myself adhere to. It is confusing me, since I hold this belief at a very deep level that it's difficult for me to examine. Does anyone see any problems in its argument, or does it seem compelling? I specifically feel as though it might be summarizing the relevant Machine Learning research badly, but I'm not very familiar with the field. It also might be failing to give any credit to simplicity as a general heuristic when simplicity succeeds in a specific field, and it's unclear whether such credit would be justified. Finally, my intuition is that situations in nature where there is a steady bias towards growing complexity are more common than the author claims, and that such tendencies are stronger for longer. However, for all of this, I have no clear evidence to back up the ideas in my head, just vague notions that are difficult to examine. I'd appreciate someone else's perspective on this, as mine seems to be distorted.
Essay: http://bruce.edmonds.name/sinti/