Scholars Mind

The Laws of Getting Things Done

Managers need people to manage—but those people can be frustratingly slow and easily distracted. Explore the psychological and structural “laws” that supposedly govern human effort, then discuss with your team: how do they apply to your preparations for this competition?

  • The Hawthorne Effect | Hofstadter’s Law | the 90-90 Rule | Conway’s Law
  • Putt’s Law | Illich’s Law | Laborit’s Law | Brooks’ Law

'It always takes longer than you expect, even when you account for Hofstadter's Law.' That self-mocking rule heads a whole folklore of 'laws' about why human effort goes sideways.

Key concepts

The Planning Fallacy
The truth beneath Hofstadter's Law: we systematically underestimate how long things take — so start prep earlier than feels necessary, because the deadline is always closer than your optimism claims.

+ 3 more concepts inside

Every work — at a glance

  • The Hawthorne Effect

    The finding that people change (often improve) their behavior simply because they know they're being observed, named after studies at a Hawthorne factory.

+ 7 more works explained inside

What to know

  1. 01
    Most of these 'laws' are jokes that encode real biases — Hofstadter's Law and the 90-90 Rule are funny precisely because the planning fallacy makes them true, so the humour is a memorable delivery system for hard-won wisdom.

+ 1 more insight inside

Across subjects

Brooks' Law — 'adding people to a late project makes it later' — is really arithmetic. Every pair of teammates is one more channel that can miscommunicate, and

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Every one of these laws answers with 'later than you think'. Applied to prep: start early, hardest first, stop before exhaustion. Useful wisdom, or fatalistic excuses? One side says naming a predictable failure is the first step to beating it. The other warns they become alibis, excusing the procrastination they describe.

Practice — a sample

SCINobody new has joined the late project, but everyone now works twelve-hour days, and fewer features ship. Which law do these facts BEST support?

  • A Brooks' Law
  • B Hofstadter's Law
  • C The 90-90 Rule
  • D Illich's Law
  • E Conway's Law

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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