Laws

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
First law: A robot may not, through its actions or inactions, allow a human to come to harm.
Second law: A robot must obey any order given to it, unless in contradiction of the First Law.
Third law: A robot must protect its own existence, unless in contradiction of the First or Second Law.

Barnum’s Law — You’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Named for P. T. Barnum, close to H. L. Mencken quotation.

Benford’s Law of Controversy — Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.

Bernard’s Law – When the people own the money, they control the government. When the government owns the money, it controls the people.
Coined by Bernard von NotHaus, monetary architect of the Liberty Dollar.

Brooks’s Law — Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Named after Fred Brooks — author of the well known tome on project management, The Mythical Man-Month.

Callahan’s Law — Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.
Coined by Mike Callahan in Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Series.

Clarke’s Three Laws. Formulated by Arthur C. Clarke.
o First law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
o Second law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little ways past them into the impossible.
o Third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Dilbert Principle — The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.
Coined by Scott Adams, author of the comic strip Dilbert.

Duverger’s Law — Winner-take-all electoral systems tend to create a two party system, while proportional representation tends to create a multiple party system.
Named after Maurice Duverger.

Finagle’s Law — Anything that can go wrong, will — at the worst possible moment.

Fudd’s First Law of Opposition — If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.
Posited by the Firesign Theatre in “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus (1971)”.

Goodhart’s Law — Once an indicator or other surrogate measure is made a target for the purpose of policy, then it will lose the information content that would qualify it to play such a role.
Coined by economist Charles Goodhart.

Gresham’s Law — Bad money drives good money out of circulation.
Coined in 1858 by British economist Henry Dunning Macleod, and named for Sir Thomas Gresham (1519–1579). Earlier stated by others, including Nicolaus Copernicus.

Hanlon’s Razor — Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Named after Robert J. Hanlon, although there is some debate.

Harshaw’s Law — Daughters can use up ten percent more than a man can make in any normal occupation, regardless of the amount.
Coined by Jubal Harshaw in Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Herblock’s Law – If you like it, they will stop making it.

Hotelling’s Law — Under some conditions, it is rational for competitors to make their products as nearly identical as possible. Named after Harold Hotelling.

Hutber’s Law — Improvement means deterioration.
Coined by financial journalist Patrick Hutber.

Kerckhoffs’ Principle — In cryptography, a system should be secure even if everything about the system, except for a small piece of information — the key — is public knowledge.
Stated by Auguste Kerckhoffs in the 19th century.

Keynes’s Law — Demand creates its own supply.
Attributed to economist John Maynard Keynes, and contrasted to Say’s law.

Kuta’s Revelation — All forms of religion are based on faith in faith itself as a self-administered psychological placebo.
From the Selfbook (2007).

Ko?akowski’s Law — For any given doctrine that one wants to believe, there is never a shortage of arguments by which to support it.
Polish philosopher Leszek Ko?akowski

Linus’s Law — Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
Named for Linus Torvalds, initiator of the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Littlewood’s Law — Individuals can expect miracles to happen to them at the rate of about one per month.
Coined by Professor John Edensor Littlewood.

Locard’s Exchange Principle — With contact between two items, there will be an exchange
Premise of forensics named after Edmond Locard

Metcalfe’s Law — In network theory, the value of a system grows as approximately the square of the number of users of the system.
Framed by Robert Metcalfe.

Moore’s Law — The complexity of an integrated circuit will double in about 24 months.
Stated in 1965, though not as a law, by Gordon E. Moore, later a co-founder of Intel.

Morton’s Fork — A person who lives in luxury and has clearly spent a lot of money must obviously have sufficient income to pay as tax. Alternatively, a person who lives frugally and shows no sign of being wealthy must have substantial savings and can therefore afford to pay it as tax.
Named after John Morton, tax collector for King Henry VII of England.

Murphy’s Law — If anything can go wrong, it will. Alternately, If it can happen, it will happen.
Ascribed to Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Murphy’s Law (alternate) — If there are two ways to do something, and one of them will result in a disaster, an untrained individual will invariably choose the wrong way.
Also ascribed to Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Ockham’s Razor — Explanations should never multiply assumptions without necessity. When two explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable.
Named after William of Ockham. Also known as Occam’s Razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

Orgel’s Rules. Formulated by evolutionary biologist Leslie Orgel.
o First rule: Whenever a spontaneous process is too slow or too inefficient a protein will evolve to speed it up or make it more efficient.
o Second rule: Evolution is cleverer than you are.

Pareto Principle — For many phenomena, 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.
Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, but framed by management thinker Joseph M. Juran.

Parkinson’s Law — Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson.

Technician’s Corollary — No matter how big the data storage medium, it will soon be filled.

Peter Principle — In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Coined by Laurence J. Peter.

Pittendreigh’s Law of Planetary Motion — The perception of time passing more quickly has nothing to do with the fact of my own aging process. It’s the fault of the Solar System! The Earth is simply moving around the sun faster every year.

Putt’s Law — Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Coined by Archibald Putt.

Reed’s Law — The utility of large networks, particularly social networks, scales exponentially with the size of the network. Named after David P. Reed.

Reilly’s Law — People generally patronize the largest mall in the area.

Rock’s Law — The cost of a semiconductor chip fabrication plant doubles every four years.
Named after Arthur Rock.

Say’s Law — Demand cannot exist without supply.
Often stated as Supply creates its own demand. Attributed to economist Jean-Baptiste Say and contrasted to Keynes’s Law.

Stigler’s Law of Eponymy — No scientific discovery, not even Stigler’s law, is named after its original discoverer.

Strathmann’s Law of Program Management – Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.

Sturgeon’s Law — Nothing is always absolutely so.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon.

Wirth’s law — Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.

Zipf’s Law — For many different kinds of things, their frequency is observed to be approximately inversely proportional to their rank order.
Named after George Kingsley Zipf.

Liar's Poker

“I have this theory,” said Andy Stone, seated in his office at Prudential-Bache Securities.

“Wall Street makes its best producers into managers. The reward for being a good producer is to be made a manager. The best producers are cutthroat, competitive, and often neurotic and paranoid. You turn these people into managers, and they go after each other. They no longer have the outlet for their instincts that producing gave them. They usually aren’t well suited to be managers. Half of them get thrown out because they are bad. Another quarter get muscled out because of politics. The guys left behind are just the most ruthless of the bunch. That’s why there are cycles on Wall Street – why Salomon Brothers is getting crunched now – because the ruthless people are bad for the business but can only be washed out by proven failure.”

Michael Lewis, Liar’s Poker

Looking for a job

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:34 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: CV

Daniel,

Thanks for calling earlier today. Enclosed is my cv for your review. I look forward to following up with you when you have more time.

Best regards,

Alan

Alan D. Lewis
Managing Director
Sthenos Capital Ltd.

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 27 March 2005 23:08
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

what are your 3 best current european ideas?

Daniel Loeb
Managing Member
Third Point LLC

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:03 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: RE: CV

Daniel,

I am sorry but it does not interest me to move forward in this way. If you wish to have a proper discussion about what you are looking to accomplish in Europe, and see how I might fit in, fine.

Lesson one of dealing in Europe, business is not conducted in the same informal manner as in the U.S.

Best regards,

Alan

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 28 March 2005 09:50
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

One idea would suffice.

We are an aggressive performance oriented fund looking for blood thirsty competitive individuals who show initiative and drive to make outstanding investments. This is why I have built third point into a $3.0 billion fund with average net returns of 30% net over 10 years.

We find most brits are bit set in their ways and prefer to knock back a pint at the pub and go shooting on weekend rather than work hard. Lifestyle choices and important and knowing one’s limitations with respect to dealing in a competitive environment is too. That is Lesson 1 at my shop.

It is good that we learned about this incompatibility early in the process and I wish you all the best in your career in traditional fund management.

Daniel

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 4:08 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: RE: CV

Daniel,

I guess your reputation is proven correct. I have not been in traditional fund management for more than eleven years. I did not achieve the success I have by knocking back a pint, as you say. I am aggressive, and I do love this business. I am Half American and half French, and having spent more than half my life on this side of the pond I think I know a little something about how one conducts business in the UK and Europe.

There are many opportunities in the UK and Europe, shareholder regard is only beginning to be accepted and understood. However, if you come here and handle it in the same brash way you have in the U.S. I guarantee you will fail. Things are done differently here, yes place in
society still matters, where one went to school etc. It will take tact, and patience (traits you obviously do not have) to succeed in this arena.

Good luck!

Alan

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 28 March 2005 10:23
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

Well, you will have plenty of time to discuss your “place in society” with the other fellows at the club.

I love the idea of a French/english unemployed guy whose fund just blew up telling me that I am going to fail.

At Third Point, like the financial markets in general,”one’s place in society” does not matter at all. We are a bunch of scrappy guys from diverse backgrounds (Jewish Muslim, Hindu etc) who enjoy outwitting pompous asses like yourself in financial markets globally.

Your “inexplicable insouciance” and disrespect is fascinating; It must be a French/English aristocratic thing. I will be following your “career” with great interest.

I have copied Patrick so that he can introduce you to people who might be a better fit-there must be an insurance company or mutual fund out there for you.

Dan Loeb

————————————————

From: Alan Lewis
To: Daniel Loeb
March 28 2005

Hubris.

————————————————

From: Daniel Loeb
To: Alan Lewis
March 28 2005

Laziness.

—————————–

New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/18/050418ta_talk_mcgrath

Maximising Industry Profit by Collusion

One strategy that firms in an oligopoly might consider is to form a cartel, in which they agree to operate as if they were one firm (a monopoly). In the typical cartel arrangement, all the firms in an industry agree that, as a group, they will produce the same output and charge the same price for the industry’s product as would a monopolist who controlled the industry. This will maximise the industry’s economic profit, which can then be divvied up on some mutualy agreeable basis.

This seems like a perfectly acceptable way for firms in an oligopoly to operate. There are only two problems with it:

1. Collusion to restrain trade and the forming of cartels, typically, is illegal.

2. If firms cheat on the agreement, the strategy will not work.

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

Singapore Girl

ST, 11 Feb
Original Singapore Girl defends the kebaya
SIA girls are globally recognised, says ex-stewardess who was model for uniform

By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

WHEN former Singapore Airlines stewardess See Biew Wah was sent to Paris in 1972, she had no idea that she would be shaping history.

Tasked to be the model for a new cabin crew uniform, Madam See became the mannequin on which French haute couturer Pierre Balmain perfected the cut and look of SIA’s famous sarong kebaya.

Now, 62 years old and a housewife, Madam See has joined the chorus of voices defending the SIA girl. She wrote in to The Sunday Times to say that the iconic uniform has always been the source of her strength and pride.

She was responding to last week’s column, Of Singapore Girls And White Men, which, among other things, made the point that the Singapore Girl deserves to be heard.

Since the national carrier announced last month that it would tender out its advertising account for the first time in 35 years, there has been public debate on whether the Singapore Girl should stay or go.

‘As one of the original Singapore Girls, I feel I have earned the right to speak up on behalf of her,’ said Madam See.

Twenty other readers wrote in sharing the same view.

Said Madam See: ‘The first time we wore the kebaya in Europe, several pedestrians walked into lamp posts because they were so engrossed. It’s a beautiful uniform which brings instant recognition.’

Because Europeans tend to be bigger than their Asian counterparts, SIA was asked to send a stewardess to Paris to model for Balmain. So for a week, Madam See posed for him.

Said Madam See: ‘He was extremely particular. If he didn’t like something, he’d just rip it off.’

Madam See has long given up her kebaya when she left SIA in 1980. But she claims she now has an ‘invisible uniform’ which has kept her strong and confident. ‘Once a Singapore Girl, always a Singapore Girl,’ she said.

Supernature

Straits Times. 11 Feb
By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

WHEN Ms C.F. Chen set up her organic food shop Supernature in a quiet corner of Wheelock Place 10 years ago, she had only five items sitting on the shelves and even fewer customers coming through the door.

When they did, they cringed at the prices and complained about holes in the apples and less-than-pristine vegetables.

Her friends thought she was crazy to have given up her $2,500-a-month job at the now defunct Telecommunication Authority of Singapore to sell ‘rabbit food’.

Today, the 37-year-old is having the last laugh.

Her two Orchard Boulevard shops are among more than 40 organic stores, cafes and warehouses in Singapore, all part of an industry estimated to be worth between $6 million and $10 million a year.

Organic food is produced without artificial pesticides or fertilisers. It is also free of additives and, in the case of organic meat, growth hormones.

Last week, Club 21 founder Christina Ong’s COMO Group bought over the two shops for an undisclosed sum, leaving Ms Chen in charge of the day-to-day operations.

Continue reading “Supernature”

The moment that breaks, it's gone

“In a different world we need to find a niche for ourselves, little corners where in spite of our small size we can perform a role which will be useful to the world. To do that, you will need people at the top, decision-makers who have got foresight, good minds, who are open to ideas, who can seize opportunities like we did… My job really was to find my successors. I found them, they are there; their job is to find their successors. So there must be this continuous renewal of talented, dedicated, honest, able people who will do things not for themselves but for their people and for their country. If they can do that, they will carry on for another one generation and so it goes on. The moment that breaks, it’s gone.”

Lee Kuan Yew, in an interview with CCTV, June 12, 2005

Efficiency

The most important thing is to look at how things are done and ask why, and whether they can be done more efficiently.

– Brian Urkowitz, Merrill Lynch managing director and head of Global Transactional Client Services