Glossary

Affordance

The quality or property of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used

Merriam-Webster dictionary

Conway’s Law

Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.

Hofstadter’s Law

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Kerchkhoff’s 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.

Metcalfe’s Law

Metcalfe’s law states the effect of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).

Wikipedia

Murphy’s Law

If something can go wrong, it will.

Pareto Principle

For many phenomena, 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.

Parkinson’s Law

Work complicates to fill the available time.

Parkinson’s law

Work contracts to fit in the time we give it

Horstman’s corollary to Parkinson’s law

Parkinson’s Law of Triviality

See also: Bike-shedding

The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved

Performance

Performance = Ability * Motivation * Situational circumstances

Price’s Law

50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.

Poe’s Law

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.

Satisfice

Describes how people navigate software

To choose or adopt the first satisfactory option that one comes across

Dictionary.com

Streisand Effect, The

The Streisand effect is a phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet

Wikipedia

Yog’s Law

Money flows toward the writer

Jim Macdonald