Ten Laws of the Modern World

1. Newton’s First Law of Motion
Bodies at rest, stay at rest. Bodies at motion, stay at motion.
(Substance of advice) x (velocity at which it is given) = impact of advice
What is the direction of your advice? Are you an Accelerator or Impactor?

2. Moore’s Law
The number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months.

3. Metcalfe’s Law
The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system.

4. Gilder’s Law
The best business models waste the era’s cheapest resources in order to conserve the era’s most expensive resources.

5. Ogilvy’s Law
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

6. Laffer Curve
Cut taxes at the margin, on income and capital, and you’ll get more tax revenue, not less.

7. Murphy’s Law
Things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance.

8. Wriston’s Law
Capital (meaning both money and ideas), when freed to travel at the speed of light, will go where it is wanted and stay where it is well-treated.

9. Ockham’s Razor
All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem).

10. Ricardo’s Law
The natural price of labor is that price which is necessary to enable the laborers to subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution.

See also: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/columnists/2005/04/19/cz_rk_0419karlgaard.html

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