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Friday, December 16, 2005

Edge: The World Question Center: What's your Law?

As this blog is mostly here for me, not you, I'm posting first how I arrived at What's your Law this morning... because I generally find anyone's path to a particular destination as or more interesting than the destination.

D.H. Lawrence mentioned in passing in Kangaroo that "The man by himself" was one of the names of Erasmus of Rotterdam, so I googled to remind myself (my only inkling of a recollection was something to do with Martin Luther) of this man of my family's geographical origins. Wikipedia was very helpful, and I followed a link to learn about Erasmus' Apophthegmatum opus , whereupon, curious to discover whether an apophthegm is some sort of pithy saying, I followed the apophthegm link which diverted to "adage". What's your Law was an external link from that "adage" Wikipedia entry.

I generally apply
Gardner's First Law: Don't ask how smart someone is; ask in what ways is he or she smart.

I figure O'Donnell's Law of Academic Administration:
If it feels good, don't do it.
extends beyond Academic Administration, based on the justification.

from Minsky's:
Minsky's First Law
Words should be your servants, not your masters.
Minsky's Second Law
Don't just do something. Stand there.

I went via his bio to remind myself what I had read in The Society of Mind and surfed a while through Listmania ... overload.

I'm getting back to work, but later I'll get back to reading what Daniel Gilbert (of Gilbert's Law: Happy people are those who do not pass up an opportunity to laugh at themselves or to make love with someone else. Unhappy people are those who get this backwards.) says about AFFECTIVE FORECASTING...OR...THE BIG WOMBASSA: WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO GET, AND WHAT YOU DON'T GET, WHEN YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT

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