Hofstadter’s Law

Hofstadter's Law is “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you account for Hofstadter’s Law.”

Hofstadter's Law is one of my favourites, and I share it time and time again.

We are bad at estimating. We don't allow for the unexpected. We don't know the unknown unknowns. We are overly optimistic. We suffer from recency bias. Generally, we struggle with big, complex things.

In the law's recursion, it's a little like this guidance from Clean Code:

“The first rule of functions is that they should be small. The second rule of functions is that they should be smaller than that.”—Clean Code

Or omit unnecessary words from Steve Krug

Given how easy it is for us to underestimate how long things will take, be kind to each other.

Also see:

• Hanlon's Razor
• Muphry's Law
• The Generalised Peter Principle
• Optimism bias

From:

From Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979)