Geek Laws

Gilb's Third Law of Unreliability:
Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited.

Troutman's Second Programming Postulate
Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.

Brook's Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

Golub's First Law of Computerdom
A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned project takes only twice as long.

Wyszkowski's Second Law
Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough.

The Principle of Multifunctional Devices
The fewer functions any device is required to perform, the more perfectly it can perform those functions.

Brooke's Law
When ever a system becomes completely defined, some fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.

Second Law of Procrastination
Procrastination reduces anxiety by reducing the expected quality of the project from the best of all possible efforts to the best that can be expected given the limited time.

Fourth Law of Procrastination
Procrastination may eliminate the job entirely if the need passes before the job can be done.

Brien's First Law
At some time in the life cycle of virtually every organization, it's ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.

Eighth Law for Naive Engineers
Major changes in construction will always be requested after fabrication is nearly completed.

Principle of Design Inertia
Any change looks terrible at first.

Eng's Principle
The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change.

Wright's First Law of Quality
Quality is inversely proportional to the time left for completion of the project.

First Law of Corporate Planning
Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time to change anything.

Leo's Law
The harder it is to find, the easier it is to fix. And vice-versa.

Weinberg's Second Law
If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, then the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.