In the past I have written a few things about Occam's Razor and how, to paraphrase, it is stupid. Recently Rebound has been diving head first into our work in Mozambique. While we have been there a very striking example of Occam's Razor has manifested itself. In short, what has struck me is the way people developing and funding technology for the developing world tend to subconsciously oversimplify the issues the developing world face. In lieu of this oversimplification, we default to an Occam-style approach to tech development: make it simple, make it stand alone, and make it clever. Ironically, this approach often leads to technology that is inappropriate, expensive, hard to upkeep, and just down-right silly.
I will get to Rebound's experience in a second, but I want to highlight one example that has received a bunch of press in the developed world. Enter, the Soccket: a soccer ball that charges a small internal battery that can then be used to provide light at night. This solution defines the classic problem with developing world technology: it pre-supposes that the developing world is a blank slate where a technology must be developed from the ground up and handed out from the back of a truck.
