Don’t we all?

So that’s why I like quotes (because they often say a great deal in a few words), rules of thumb and the laws and principles I’m going to write about today.

I have my own – it’s “It’s always the last 5% that will kill you” – which is to say that whenever I’m working on something, whether it’s programming, building work or removing nails from a piece of wood, I’m amazed by how often everything is going great and then the last bit turns out to be difficult. You can bet that in that piece of wood, I’ll always choose the most stubborn nail that has got hidden twists or a head that just keeps having bits break off – whatever it is it will be a million times more difficult than every other one – well somehow that will be the last one – just when I thought it was really simple, I’d be done in two minutes and could go in for a cup of tea.

As far as I know this is not a famous quote or law but I find myself saying it quite often. I suppose it is a little similar to that fat lady (the one that sings when it’s all over).

Earlier today something led me to discuss the Pareto Principle with someone who I couldn’t believe hadn’t heard of it. He asked me if there was more like that so I said sure and ended up telling him about Murphy’s Law (which he had heard of), Parkinson’s Law, Occam’s Razor and Hick’s Law.

So then I asked myself how many such Law’s there actually are and how many of them I know because I like this stuff and I’m a bit of a geek like that. Here is what I came up with – see how many of them you know:

1. Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
2. Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule): 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
3. Occam’s Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation.
4. Hick’s Law: The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number of choices available.
5. Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
6. Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
7. The Peter Principle: Employees in a hierarchy will tend to be promoted until they reach a level of incompetence.
8. Amara’s Law: We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.
9. Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
10. Metcalfe’s Law: The value of a network increases with the square of the number of users.
11. Conway’s Law: Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.
12. Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
13. The Law of Diminishing Returns: As you add more of a resource to a process, the marginal benefit of each additional unit will eventually decline.
14. The Law of Unintended Consequences: Actions often have unexpected and unforeseen outcomes.
15. Maslow’s Hammer: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
16. The Matthew Effect: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Success breeds further success, while failure can be self-perpetuating.
17. The Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to a stimulus tends to increase liking for that stimulus.
18. The Jevons Paradox: Increased efficiency in the use of a resource can lead to increased consumption of that resource.
19. The Abilene Paradox: A group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is contrary to the preferences of any of the individual members.
20. The Cobra Effect: An attempt to solve a problem can actually make the problem worse.
21. The Law of Requisite Variety: In order for a system to be stable, the variety of responses available to it must be equal to or greater than the variety of inputs it receives.
22. The Law of Triviality: Organizations often spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy discussing trivial matters while ignoring important issues.
23. Cunningham’s Law: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.
24. Poe’s Law: It is impossible to parody something so badly that it cannot be mistaken for the genuine article.

Note: I have delibereately omitted a few I thought not up to scratch or that were more like rules (i.e. do this) than laws or principles  (i.e. have you ever noticed how this happens).

So a slightly different aricle today – it’s something I was playing around with anyway so thought I’d capture it here.

Where these things can be useful as I said at the start is as you are toddling through life, having some of these in your general knowledge banks often helps in a few words to understand some of life’s little mysteries, perhaps to explain them or at least to explore them.

Have fun!