From: David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Date: Fri Jan 16 2004 - 21:47:17 MST
> Since you are so bright, you probably have at least two you can articulate. Send me two laws based on your empirical work and
observations you would not mind having tagged with your name. Stick to science and to those scientific areas where you have
expertise. Avoid flippancy. Remember, your name will be attached to your law.
My first stab at some laws...
The Law of the Lurkers:
Given an online community, 90% of the members are lurkers.
The Law of Software Schedules:
The amount of time remaining until completion of a software project always follows a lognormal distribution.
1st Corollary: If the project is going well, the standard deviation of the distribution will decrease over time.
2nd Corollary: It is much easier to underestimate than overestimate the time remaining.
The Paradox of Rationality:
In an average debate, committing to rationality will weaken your position.
The Paradox of Knowledge:
The more you know, the less certain you are.
Corollary: In an average debate, the most strident participants tend to be the most ignorant.
The Paradox of Libertarians:
The more committed you are to individual liberty, the less likely you are to impose your political views on others.
The Paradox of Interpretation:
Given two or more possible interpretations of some text, the readers tends to choose the one they would disagree with most.
Agree or disagree with these?
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