List of various laws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws
Goodhart’s law
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
Jevons paradox
In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ˈdʒɛvənz/; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the falling cost of use induces increases in demand enough that resource use is increased, rather than reduced.[1][2][3] Governments typically assume that efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of the paradox arising.[4]
Wirth’s law
Wirth’s law is an adage on computer performance which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster.
Parkinson’s_law
- If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.
- Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.
- Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
Oscar Wilde on bureaucracy
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.
Cheops law
Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
Conquest’s three laws of politics
- First law: Everyone is conservative about what he knows best
- Second law: Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
- Third law: The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
Conway’s law
Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it. Named after Melvin Conway.
Cunningham’s law
The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer.
Dilbert principle
The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.
Doctorow’s law
Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, they’re not doing it for your benefit.
Dunning–Kruger effect
… is a cognitive bias in which people who are unskilled in some area wrongly believe their ability is higher than average; they don’t know enough about the subject to accurately measure their aptitude. People with well-above-average skills are acutely aware of how much they don’t know of the subject, but less aware of the general ineptitude of others, so tend to underestimate their relative ability.
Gell-Mann amnesia effect
Believing newspaper articles outside one’s area of expertise, even after acknowledging that neighboring articles in one’s area of expertise are completely wrong.
Gibson’s law
For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD.
Godwin’s law, an adage in Internet culture
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", but more accurately “Bad money drives good money out of circulation if their exchange rate is set by law.
Hebb’s law
Neurons that fire together wire together.
Hofstadter’s law
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s law
Joy’s law in management
no matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else
Lem’s Law
No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn’t understand, if he understands, he immediately forgets.
Linus’s law
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
Murphy’s law
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Occams’s razor
- explanations should never multiply causes without necessity. (“Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”)
- When two or more explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable. Named after William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349).
Okun’s law, in economics
when unemployment increases by 1%, the annual GDP decreases by 2%.
Peltzman effect
Safety measures are offset by increased risk-taking.
Peter principle
In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Schneier’s law
Anyone can create a cryptographic algorithm that he himself can’t break. It’s not even hard. What is hard is creating an algorithm that no one else can break.
Segal’s law
A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
Shermer’s last law
Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God
Shirky principle
Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.
Sowa’s law of standards
Whenever a major organization develops a new system as an official standard for X, the primary result is the widespread adoption of some simpler system as a de facto standard for X.
Streisand effect
whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.
Vierordt’s law
… states that, retrospectively, “short” intervals of time tend to be overestimated, and “long” intervals of time tend to be underestimated.
Zawinski’s law
Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot expand are replaced by ones which can.