Relatively new (to me) general laws named after people that I’ve recently come across:<\/p>\n

Godwin’s Law,<\/strong> mentioned in Black Sun Journal<\/a> “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”<\/p>\n

Hanlon’s Razor,<\/strong> mentioned in Barefoot Bum<\/a>: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”<\/p>\n

Brook’s Law<\/strong>: mentioned in someone’s course book “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”<\/p>\n

There was even a superb post on NewsBiscuit<\/a> “Archbishop claims introduction of Sod’s Law is inevitable<\/strong>“, very funny if you get the reference (Archbishop of Canterbury and Shari’a Law), probably even funny, if you don’t.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quote:<\/p>\n

Sod\u2019s Law has already been introduced in some parts of the UK. New Welsh secretary, Paul Murphy, introduced his own version of the law in Wales this month. From 1 February \u2018Murphy\u2019s Law\u2019 dictates that anyone who applies for a public sector post will be interviewed by panel that includes the driver you crashed into on the way to the interview or an ex-girlfriend who found you in bed with her sister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia beat me to the punch in my plan of listing all the laws that are named after someone. It has a whole page titled List of eponymous laws<\/a><\/strong>. Most of them are standard Boyles’ Law<\/strong>-style Laws but they also have the new ones.<\/p>\n

Linus Torvalds is the only person whose Law was named for his first name.<\/p>\n

Linus’s law \u2014 named for Linus Torvalds, states “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can’t find a single female. That’s not to say that there are no females in the list. I don’t know. I not only never heard of most of these people, I’ve never heard of most of the Laws. Nor can I think of when they might apply.<\/p>\n

I’m taking it that they are general principles. Otherwise the temptation to break ones like<\/p>\n

Reilly’s law \u2014 of Retail Gravitation, people generally patronize the largest mall in the area.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

would be well nigh overwhelming. It’s a bit wishy-washy anyway… “generally.” Much I would like to flout it by going to the smallest mall I could find, it seems a bit too unprescriptive for a full-scale law, so hardly worth the effort of breaking it.<\/p>\n

# Rothbard’s law \u2014 everyone specializes in his own area of weakness.
\n# Sarnoff’s law \u2014 the value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am not at all convinced by Rothbard’s law. Otherwise I’d be running a housekeeping service. And Sarnoff? What. Any business’s value depends on the number of its customers. What sort of a meaningful Law is that? How did he get his name stuck on a Law on the basis of so banal an observation?<\/p>\n

I’m leading up to a point….. <\/p>\n

It’s about time there was a Law coined by a female, so I am volunteering. Following Linus, I’m going to use my first name. (Well, my first name as in nom de blog<\/em>.) I thought of plundering Oscar Wilde’s work for all those pithy sayings, presented in an arch Law-like way. Too cowardly, and it would be breaking a plagiarism Law. Here’s my first humble effort.<\/p>\n

Heather’s Law: “Any general observation is more likely to be be presented as a Law the more closely it approaches a truism”<\/p>\n

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    Relatively new (to me) general laws named after people that I’ve recently come across: Godwin’s Law, mentioned in Black Sun Journal “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” Hanlon’s Razor, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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