12 UNWRITTEN LAWS OF LIFE & WORK
Published on: December 16, 2025
Last updated: December 16, 2025 Read in fullscreen view
Last updated: December 16, 2025 Read in fullscreen view
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Understand the "rules of the game" to reduce self-blame, lower stress, and work smarter.
1. Murphy's Law
- Concept: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
- Advice: Always have a Plan B, backup files, and checklists.
2. Parkinson's Law
- Concept: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
- Advice: Set clear deadlines and use time-blocking.
3. Goodhart's Law
- Concept: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
- Advice: Focus on actual behavior and results; don't just chase "pretty" metrics.
4. Brandolini's Law (The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle)
- Concept: The amount of energy needed to refute "garbage" information is ten times larger than the energy needed to produce it.
- Advice: Pick your battles; don't waste energy arguing over everything online.
5. Falkland's Law
- Concept: When there is no need to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.
- Advice: Identify things that can wait; gather more information before deciding.
6. Campbell's Law
- Concept: The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures.
- Advice: Over-reliance on metrics will eventually ruin the system.
7. Sayre's Law
- Concept: In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.
- Advice: When emotions run high, step back and ask: "Will this still matter in 3–6 months?"
8. The Peter Principle
- Concept: People are promoted until they reach their "level of incompetence."
- Advice: Proactively learn skills for the "next level"; don't assume you'll be good just because you got promoted.
9. Littlewood's Law
- Concept: Miracles (rare events) can actually happen to you quite often.
- Advice: Prepare for big but low-probability risks (insurance, emergency funds, etc.).
10. Kidlin's Law
- Concept: If you don't write it down, your brain will exaggerate everything.
- Advice: Put everything on paper; break down tasks to execute them.
11. Law of Diminishing Returns
- Concept: Working more is not always better.
- Advice: Know when to stop to preserve your energy.
12. Hofstadter's Law
- Concept: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
- Advice: Take your estimated time x 1.3–1.5; always leave room for errors and surprises.
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