Thursday, August 6, 2009

90 percent of this post is crap

Brooks' law Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. Named after Fred Brooks, author of the well known book on Project Management, The Mythical Man-Month.
Dilbert Principle Coined by Scott Adams as a variation of the Peter Principle of employee advancement. Named after Adams' Dilbert comic strip, it proposes that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.
Finagle's law Generalized version of Murphy's law, fully named Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives and usually rendered "anything that can go wrong, will or "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, and at the worst possible moment." Not strictly eponymous, since there was no Finagle.
Godwin's law An adage in Internet culture that states "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." Coined by Mike Godwin in 1990
Gresham's law "bad money drives good money out of circulation". Coined in 1858 by British economist Henry Dunning Macleod, and named for Sir Thomas Gresham (1519–1579). The principle had been stated before Gresham by others, including Nicolaus Copernicus.
Hanlon's razor A corollary of Finagle's law, normally taking the form "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.". As with Finagle, possibly not strictly eponymous. Alternately, "Do not invoke conspiracy as explanation when ignorance and incompetence will suffice, as conspiracy implies intelligence."
Herblock's law states that "If it's good, they'll stop making it." Possibly coined by Herbert Lawrence Block, whose pen name was Herblock.
Hofstadter's law "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law." It was created by Douglas Hofstadter in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach.
Hotelling's law in economics — Under some conditions, it is rational for competitors to make their products as nearly identical as possible.
Hutber's law "Improvement means deterioration". Coined by financial journalist Patrick Hutber.
Kranzberg's First Law of Technology - Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.
Linus's law — named for Linus Torvalds, states "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow".
Moynihan's law "The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country." Coined by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003).
Murphy's law Ascribed to Edward A. Murphy, Jr. who stated "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will end in disaster, then someone will do it that way."
Occam's razor States that explanations should never multiply causes without necessity. When two explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable. Named after William of Ockham (ca.1285–1349)
Okrent's Law The pursuit of balance can create imbalance because sometimes something is true. Stated by Daniel Okrent, first Public Editor for The New York Times
Pareto principle States that for many phenomena 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes. Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, but framed by management thinker Joseph M. Juran.
Parkinson's law "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson(1909–1993), who also coined its corollary, "Expenditure rises to meet income." In computers - Programs expand to fill all available memory.
Peter principle "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) in his book The Peter Principle. In his follow-up book, The Peter Prescription, he offered possible solutions to the problems his Principle could cause.
Poe's Law That there is a maximum desirable length for poems: "the unit of poetry must be fixed by the reader's capacity of attention, and ... the limits of a poem must accord with the limits of a single movement of intellectual apprehension and emotional exaltation". Named for Edgar Allan Poe.
Reilly's law of Retail Gravitation, people generally patronize the largest mall in the area.
Roemer's law a hospital bed built is a bed filled
Sayre's law "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue." By way of corollary, the law adds: "That is why academic politics are so bitter."
Schneier's Law "Any person can invent a security system so clever that she or he can't think of how to break it."
Segal's law "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."
Skitt's law a corollary of Muphry's law, variously expressed as "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself" or "the likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster."
Sturgeon's law "Nothing is always absolutely so." Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985)
Sutton's law "'Go where the money is'". Often cited in medical schools to teach new doctors to spend resources where they are most likely to pay off. The law is named after bank robber Willie Sutton, who when asked why he robbed banks is claimed to have answered "Because that's where the money is."
Wirth's law Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.

Sturgeon's revelation "90 percent of everything is crap."

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