Hacker Laws

~4 mins read

All models are wrong, but some are useful.

tldr

Keep it simple

Don’t take down a fence unless you know why it is put up

The best code is no code

Do one thing and do it well

Test early and often

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Leave it better than you found.

The best code is no code
Simple solutions are more likely to be correct. Occam’s Razor
Do one thing and do it well
YAGNI
KISS
Nirvana Fallacy
Get end-to-end first
Too many options leads to decision paralysis
Premature optimization is the root of all evil. Donald Knuth
Decision time grows logarithmically with the number of options you can choose from. Hick’s Law
Humans can comfortably maintain up to 150 stable relationships. Dunbar’s Number
With a sufficient number of users of an API, all observable behaviors of your system will be depended on by somebody. Hyrum’s Law (The Law of Implicit Interfaces)
The technical boundaries of a system will reflect the structure of the organization. Conway’s Law
The Law of Demeter, “The Principle of Least Knowledge”
The Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule)
20% of a system creates 80% of its value
Ship it
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
There is a certain amount of complexity in a system that cannot be reduced. The Law of Conservation of Complexity (Tesler’s Law)
All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Chesterton’s Fence: Don’t take down a fence unless you know why it is put up.

The Broken Windows Theory: Visible signs of lack of care in an environment lead to further and more serious deterioration.
Get feedback early and often
Test early and often
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Brandolini’s law: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take this into account
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Parkinson’s Law
Cheops law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
Adding human resources to a late software development project makes it later. Brooks’ Law
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Goodhart’s Law
We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. The Hype Cycle & Amara’s Law

Incompetent people think they are the best. The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. The Shirky Principle
People in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence”. The Peter Principle

Also see