Eponymous laws
From RationalWiki
Revision as of 14:55, 25 April 2012 by WaitingforGodot (Talk | contribs)
The following is a list of eponymous laws of varying degrees. Some are well known, others exist only on the internet.
- Poe's Law:
- Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to make a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.
- Russell's Law:
- It is impossible to distinguish a creationist from a parody of a creationist.
- Godwin's Law:
- As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
- Hofstadter's Law:
- It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
- The Peter Principle:
- In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
- The Dilbert Principle:
- Leadership is nature's way of removing morons from the productive flow.
- Parkinson's Law:
- Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
- Corollaries:
- Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
- Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
- Your stuff accumulates to fill the size of your home.
- Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
- First law: A robot may not, through its actions or inactions, allow a human to come to harm.
- Second law: A robot must obey any order given to it, unless in contradiction of the First Law.
- Third law: A robot must protect its own existence, unless in contradiction of the First or Second Law.
- Clarke's Laws:
- First law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- Second law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little ways past them into the impossible.
- Third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arken's Law:
- a discussion is over when present society is compared to Orwell's Oceania in the book 1984.
- Acton's Law:
- Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- Beach's Law:
- No two identical parts are alike.
- Beauregard's Law:
- When you are up to your eyeballs in it, keep your mouth shut.
- Beckhap's Law:
- Beauty times brains equals a constant.
- Colson's Law:
- When you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
- Dykstra's Law:
- Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
- Ebert's Law:
- It's not what it's about, it's how it's about it. (Referring to films)
- Firestone's Forecasting Law:
- Chicken Little only has to be right once.
- Gumperson's Law:
- The probability of a given event occurring is inversely proportional to its desirability.
- Kitman's Law:
- Pure drivel tends to drive away ordinary drivel.
- Lee's Law:
- Mother said there would be days like this, but she never said that there'd be so many!
- Murphy's Law
- If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.
- Mencken's Law or Shaw's Law:
- Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. (Or, as put by Shaw in 1903: "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.")
- Martin's Extension: Those who cannot teach, teach education (or administrate).
- Short's Extension: Those who cannot teach, criticize.
- Russell’s Extension: Those who cannot teach, write[1].
- Some Yale Prof's Extension: Those who cannot teach, do research.
- Allen's Extension: Those who cannot teach, teach gym.
- Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. (Or, as put by Shaw in 1903: "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.")
- Napoleon's Law:
- Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Skitt's Law
- Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself.
- Thoreau's Law:
- If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intention of doing you good, you should run for your life.