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.
It comes form being able to tell which part of the success is because of your method and which part is the data that you fed to your method. There was a big listing of domain knowledge assumptions and this seems like a one of the first things to assume about a domain. When one knows the difference between knowledge and assumtions it isn't that hard to take simplicity preference as an assumption instead of fact ie the proper attribution doesn't really increase ones cognitive workload.
It can be okay to guess that simplicity works good (especially when one knows that the odds are good) but then you are not knowing.
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/