Occam's Razor

...not one of these... it's a different thing.

Programmers don't seem to be given tools to diagnose problems, whereas physicians do - Occam's razor, differential diagnosis.

A doctor uses mental tools such as Occam's Razor and Differential Diagnosis to justify a particular prognosis or diagnostic route. These tools provide a quick and relatively   simple framework for making quick decisions from the available information.

Occam's razor is given as:

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity

Differential Diagnosis

This is the most useful thing you can learn while eating curry, drinking beer and watching TV.

Seen House? Know what the differential is?

It's where someone works out what the problem is just be the presence of some information. This is differential diagnosis.