Laws That Shape Our World

From Murphy's Law to Occam's Razor — one-line insights that move the world

30 Laws · 6 Fields
⚙️

Engineering · Life

5
Murphy's Law
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong
1949 · 厄
Hofstadter's Law
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account
1979 · 期
Hanlon's Razor
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
1980 · 愚
Sayre's Law
In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake
1973 · 細
Cobra Effect
A poorly designed incentive worsens the problem it was meant to solve
2001 · 反
🏢

Organization · Work

5
Parkinson's Law
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
1955 · 滿
The Peter Principle
In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence
1969 · 階
Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
80% of effects come from 20% of causes
1896 · 寡
Brooks's Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
1975 · 增
Putt's Law
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand
1981 · 二
💹

Economics · Market

5
Gresham's Law
Bad money drives out good
1558 · 替
Goodhart's Law
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
1975 · 標
Campbell's Law
The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures
1976 · 量
The Streisand Effect
Trying to hide information causes it to spread more
2003 · 隱
Survivorship Bias
We see only those who returned, and forget those who did not
1943 · 殘
💻

Technology

5
Moore's Law
The number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years
1965 · 倍
Metcalfe's Law
The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users
1980 · 網
Wirth's Law
Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster
1995 · 緩
Conway's Law
Organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure
1967 · 映
Hyrum's Law
With a sufficient number of API users, all observable behaviors will be depended on
2014년경 · 着
🧭

Philosophy · Thinking

5
Occam's Razor
Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity
14세기 · 簡
Sturgeon's Law
Ninety percent of everything is crap
1957 · 凡
Hitchens's Razor
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence
2003 · 證
Cunningham's Law
The best way to get the right answer on the internet is to post the wrong answer
1980년대 · 誤
Godwin's Law
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1
1990 · 較
🌐

Society · Time

5
Dunbar's Number
A person can maintain stable social relationships with approximately 150 others
1992 · 限
Linus's Law
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
1999 · 衆
The Lindy Effect
The longer something has survived, the longer it will continue to survive
1964 · 久
Stigler's Law of Eponymy
No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer
1980 · 譽
Knuth's Premature Optimization
Premature optimization is the root of all evil
1974 · 早

Frequently Asked Questions

What are "Laws That Shape Our World"?

One-sentence compressions of patterns in life, work, technology, philosophy, and society. Murphy\'s Law, Parkinson\'s Law, and Occam\'s Razor are well-known examples.

Are these laws scientifically proven?

Not all. Some (Pareto, Moore) are statistical observations; others (Murphy, Hanlon) are empirical aphorisms. Each law page includes a "caveat" section.

Why is each law tied to a single hanja?

ONGO\'s signature — each law condensed into one hanja and cross-linked with Eastern classics (Analects, Zhuangzi, Tao Te Ching). The core message: Eastern thinkers taught the same insights 2,300 years ago.

How many laws are included?

Currently 30 laws, organized into six fields: Engineering·Life, Organization·Work, Economics·Market, Technology, Philosophy·Thinking, and Society·Time.