Stop Naming Adages After People and Calling Them Laws
24th January 2021
Without leaving the letter M: Moore’s Law, Murphy’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law, Mooers’s Law. I’m not saying an adage should never, ever be named after a person. I’ll admit, Moore’s Law and Murphy’s Law have a certain catchiness to them. But the trend of taking a maxim and calling it Person’s Law has resulted in dozens and dozens of these things being produced, and it makes my head spin. Soon every fact or aphorism will be Somebody’s Law. Not only have such adage laws become a cliché, but, as I have found when researching this article, many of the laws are either not named after the person who came up with the idea (ignorance), or are named by the author after themselves (egotism). They are also called “laws” when they aren’t really laws to lend the ideas more credence than they deserve, or at least more memetic value. It’s hard for me not to take on a negative tone in this article after being exposed to such egotism and ignorance. Apologies in advance.
Preach it, brother.