As a lifelong wisdom-seeker, I’ve been collecting interesting and helpful Laws, Theories, Heuristics, Theorems, Effects, Paradoxes, Rules, Razors, Lasers, Swords, Phenomenons, Biases and Principles for years.
They are often shortcuts to wisdom, and helpful nuggets to understand human behavior and potential blindspots.
Plus, some of them are flat-out fun.
Here are 25 that are relevant to work, business, entrepreneurship, and just being a human. And I’ve thrown in a few of my own just for fun.
Warning: once you start to understand these, you’ll start seeing them EVERYWHERE (aka, the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon).
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Parkinson’s Law: Work tends to expand to fill the time allotted. This could be expanded to mean that projects expand to fill the resources provided. For instance, if you give yourself a year to finish a project it will probably take a year. Implications: Practice giving yourself less time and fewer resources for projects. It forces creativity.
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Horstman’s Corollary: Work contracts to fit into the time allotted. See above.
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Loss Aversion: People are more motivated by loss aversion than reward. Implications: This is why speeding tickets are fairly effective. People hate losing something. People will do more to avoid losing $10 than to earn $100.
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Absence Blindness: We don’t pay attention to the wheel that isn’t squeaky, and we give undue attention to the squeaky wheel. We don’t appreciate what’s working, therefore we don’t tend to study it and understand it. Implications: Try to pay attention to what’s working (e.g., the employee who is performing well) and not just what’s broken or needs fixing. We have to work extra hard to appreciate what’s working.
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Planning Fallacy: We grossly underestimate how long something will take or how many resources will be necessary when predicting complex projects. We’re awful at predicting how long something complex will take us. Implications: For complex projects, double or triple how long you think it will take. That will probably be closer to reality.
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Dornbusch Rule: “Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.” (From The late Rudi Donrbusch, Macroeconomist)
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Dunbar’s Law: You can only really have a network of around 150 people. After that it gets too loose and disconnected. About 15 people can be close friends/connections, and only around 5 can be super close like family. Implications: For any organization over 150 people, know that people will feel disconnected so they’ll need smaller groups to connect with.
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Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Or “Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Implications: Be careful what numbers become targets. At a certain point, that will probably cease to become a good measure of performance because it will be “gamed” or “rigged”.
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Universal Law of Need: The more you need something, the less likely you are to get it. Desperation begets poverty. Taps into the downside of the Law of Attraction.
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Self-Serving Bias: Human tendency to take credit for success, and most consider themselves better than average at school and work. e.g., If successful, it’s because of my brilliance. If I fail, it’s because of some other reason. Implications: Know that we all as humans have great difficulty knowing the real reasons for success or failure. We often search for answers and point to the wrong things. See “Fake Because” below.
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Fake Because: Those who have studied psychology understand that people often don’t know their own reasons for doing things, however humans feel compelled to give a reason anyways. This often results in a “Fake Because”. Scott Adams gives this name to the fake reason people come up with, subconsciously, for doing or not doing something. e.g., Someone claims they left their job because the pay was too low, when in fact it could have been a host of other real reasons. In this case “pay” was used as the easy thing to point to. Implications: It’s good to be aware of our own Self-Serving Bias and propensity to develop “Fake Because” reasons.
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Credentialism: A halo effect where you view someone as important or trustworthy because of their credentials, rather than their actual capabilities or potential. The movie “Money Ball” tells the real life story of how Oakland A’s coach Billy Bean actively sought out players who didn’t have the “credentialed resume” and didn’t look the part, because they had potential but were overlooked by other coaches who had a bias towards credentials or someone who “looked the part.” See below to overcome it.
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“Look the Part” Razor: If forced to choose between two options of seemingly equal merit, choose the one that doesn’t look the part. The one who doesn’t look the part has had to overcome much more to achieve its status than the one who fit in perfectly (From N Taleb).
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Endowment Effect: People place a greater value on things once they own them. We value what is ours irrationally.
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Wittgenstein Halo Effect (from yours truly): Ludwig Wittgenstein was a philosopher who was a powerful and persuasive lecturer. He was an attractive/imposing force who won over crowds to his ideas, not because they were true but because they were swayed by him. Implications: If you’re a particularly charismatic and persuasive leader, make sure to surround yourself with people who can challenge you. Otherwise you might persuade people in the wrong direction, becoming a victim of your own powers.
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Mere Exposure Effect: The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. Beware though, there is a point of exposure saturation and positive perception actually declines. Implications: In business, it often takes at least 20 interactions before a new prospect becomes familiar with your brand.
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Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword: If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation, it is not worth debating. This will save you from wasting a lot of time on pointless arguments. If it can be settled by experiment or observation, then just skip the argument and run the experiment!
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The Spotlight Phenomenon (from yours truly): The effect when inserting something particularly beautiful into an environment can serve to reveal previously hidden defects. For example, adding a beautiful piece of furniture to a bland living room can reveal the blandness whereas previously it was unnoticed. Implications: Improving something might make the status quo look worse than it did previously. So, progress often begets the need for more progress. It’s good to know this when trying to improve anything (interior design, culture, brand, leadership team, or anything).
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Goodhart’s Law is expressed simply as, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” In other words, when we set one specific goal, people will tend to optimize for that objective regardless of the consequences.
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Peak-End Rule: People remember experiences by the most intense part and the end. Implications: when designing a speech, or an experience for your customers or team members, make sure to pay extra attention to the middle and the end. People will remember the high points and the ending. End on a high note.
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Gall’s Law is a rule of thumb for systems design from Gall’s book Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail. It states: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. Implications: when starting something new (product, business, service, etc.), start simple and make something that works before making it more complex over time. Nothing complex that works started complex.
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The Hawthorne Effect, also called the Observer Effect, is where people in studies change their behavior because they are watched. Implications: just observing something changes its outcome. When interviewing team members, customers, or observing a process, know that your observation is changing the outcomes. Be aware.
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Noble Cause Corruption: Someone starts to feel they are above the law because their cause is noble. Implications: If you are setting out to do something good, you are especially vulnerable to Noble Cause Corruption.
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The Last Mile Rule (from yours truly): The last stretch of anything will always be the hardest, whether a race, a work day, or a project. Things tend to be hardest right before they get easier.
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The Infinite Loop of 2 (year-olds): You have to clean constantly because you have a 2-year-old. But you can’t clean, because you have a 2-year-old. I came up with this one because I’m living it right now and loving every minute of it 😉
