Parkinson's Law
Origin
Published anonymously in 1955 in The Economist. Case: Britain's Royal Navy from 1914 to 1928 — warships decreased 67%, while naval administrators increased 78%. Work shrank but the organization grew. Parkinson formalized this as a "law." His 1957 book became a bestseller.
Meaning
Give a one-day task a week, it takes a week. Schedule a one-hour meeting, it fills an hour. Why deadlines work. Parkinson's discovery: time is not an objective resource but a vessel humans fill.
Lesson — Meeting Eastern Classics
Zhuangzi: "A frog in a well cannot discuss the sea; a summer insect cannot discuss ice." We live only as large as our vessel. Parkinson showed that the vessel's size is the organization itself.
"滿" combines water (氵) with flat-fullness (㒼) — a vessel full to the brim. Analects: "Fullness invites loss; emptiness receives gain." Parkinson's Law is the nature of 滿 — what is empty fills itself. Only those who consciously protect emptiness survive.
