Occam's razor

 (or Ockham's razor^[1]), often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae, translating to law of parsimony, law of economy or law of succinctness, is a principle that generally recommends selecting the competing hypothesis that makes the fewest new assumptions, when the hypotheses are equal in other respects.^[2] For instance, they must both sufficiently explain available data in the first place.


Often inaccurately summarized as "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor