we choose theta again we chosen by doing counts but we're hoping to find a more general principle that will reduce the counts in this case but in other cases still be possible to apply so you could say well a more general principle would be to say I want to find the parameter theta that maximizes this score because whichever theta maximizes this score is the theta that makes what I saw happen in the world more likely to happen than any other theta I would have made it so it's the best explanation of how the world works at least the part of the