WhatwasIsaying's definitions
The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
Also known as the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.
Coined in 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian programmer.
Related to the quote attributed to Noam Chomsky, "It takes a minute to tell a lie, and an hour to refute it."
Also known as the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.
Coined in 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian programmer.
Related to the quote attributed to Noam Chomsky, "It takes a minute to tell a lie, and an hour to refute it."
Trolls rely on Brandolini's Law to tie up well-meaning people in time-consuming debunking, with a minimum of effort on their own part.
by WhatwasIsaying December 24, 2024
Get the Brandolini's Law mug.None of us are as dumb as all of us.
A counter to the older, pro-teamwork adage "None of us are as smart as all of us."
Speaks to the risk of lower-level workers' input being useless if upper management gives its own opinion first, due to the tendency of workers to fall in line once the position of the leader (who could fire them for dissent) is known.
The wording above was written on a wall at NASA's Houston complex after the Challenger disaster, as reported by astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Although the concept has long been known of, once it took the form of an aphorism, it acquired a viral quality.
A counter to the older, pro-teamwork adage "None of us are as smart as all of us."
Speaks to the risk of lower-level workers' input being useless if upper management gives its own opinion first, due to the tendency of workers to fall in line once the position of the leader (who could fire them for dissent) is known.
The wording above was written on a wall at NASA's Houston complex after the Challenger disaster, as reported by astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Although the concept has long been known of, once it took the form of an aphorism, it acquired a viral quality.
Niels Bohr and son Aage asked low-level engineer Richard Feynman their questions before asking higher-ups like Oppenheimer, partly to avoid taking up important administrators' time, but also to avoid Kelly's law of committees. Asking the higher-ups first, with lower-level workers present, would have a chilling effect on the latter's offering their own ideas and concerns.
by WhatwasIsaying December 24, 2024
Get the Kelly's Law of Committees mug.Voters were concerned about inflation so they voted for the party that blocked anti-price-gouging legislation, went to Saudi Arabia to reduce oil supply to protect oil company profits, were in the White House at the start of the last recession, and added to the national debt for the sake of stock buybacks. MIMS
by WhatwasIsaying January 3, 2025
Get the MIMS mug.If you ask the top people for their opinions first, you won’t get effective advice from the people below them.
A group of people can be asked to make a decision and will march off in a direction they never would have taken by themselves.
When doctors are preparing to perform brain surgery on your wife, pull the top surgeons and physicians into a breakroom with residents and other medical staff and ask the people on the lowest rungs of the profession for their opinions on the surgery first.
Source: Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, in 2014 at the annual Visitor Industry Luncheon at the Sioux Falls Convention Center
“I learned you do not want to ask the space shuttle commander, the flight director, the chief engineer or program manager his opinion first. If you do, you don’t get effective advice from the people below them.”
A group of people can be asked to make a decision and will march off in a direction they never would have taken by themselves.
When doctors are preparing to perform brain surgery on your wife, pull the top surgeons and physicians into a breakroom with residents and other medical staff and ask the people on the lowest rungs of the profession for their opinions on the surgery first.
Source: Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, in 2014 at the annual Visitor Industry Luncheon at the Sioux Falls Convention Center
“I learned you do not want to ask the space shuttle commander, the flight director, the chief engineer or program manager his opinion first. If you do, you don’t get effective advice from the people below them.”
At Los Alamos, visitors Niels Bohr and brother Harald obeyed Kelly’s Rule of Inquiry by running their ideas on the current work by Richard Feynman before asking anyone higher up.
by WhatwasIsaying January 25, 2025
Get the Kelly’s Rule of Inquiry mug.Of greater danger than nobody knowing what to do is a broadly held presumption that somebody does.
Source: “‘Idiocracy’ is a disturbingly prescient reflection of our current reality, not because nobody knows anything but because everybody thinks somebody does." ~ Jared Bauer
Source: “‘Idiocracy’ is a disturbingly prescient reflection of our current reality, not because nobody knows anything but because everybody thinks somebody does." ~ Jared Bauer
Bauer's Rule of Idiocracy arises in part from characteristics discussed in Erich Fromm’s “Escape From Freedom,” including a desire to defer to a trusted figure to escape the burden of having to puzzle out matters for which one is ill-equipped, the learning curve is steep, or information is at best incomplete.
by WhatwasIsaying January 25, 2025
Get the Bauer's Rule of Idiocracy mug.Success in life depends largely on your ability to speak, your ability to write, and the quality of your ideas, in that order.
A somewhat depressing observation that the best ideas don’t necessarily win out in the end, but depend on salesmanship, including thinking on one’s feet and a compelling in-person presentation.
Source: Prof. Patrick Winston
A somewhat depressing observation that the best ideas don’t necessarily win out in the end, but depend on salesmanship, including thinking on one’s feet and a compelling in-person presentation.
Source: Prof. Patrick Winston
by WhatwasIsaying January 25, 2025
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Source: Anonymous copywriter for WDVA radio in Virginia, 1975, appearing in an ad in The Danville Register
Misattributed to P.T. Barnum c. 1999
Source: Anonymous copywriter for WDVA radio in Virginia, 1975, appearing in an ad in The Danville Register
Misattributed to P.T. Barnum c. 1999
Barnum’s Law dictates that having an elevator pitch ready in case the CEO asks you what your function is could be a matter of keeping your job.
by WhatwasIsaying January 25, 2025
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