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I coined "Brogdon's Law" (probably not original to me by any stretch) several years ago: The answer to any technical problem will present itself within 30 seco

I coined "Brogdon's Law" (probably not original to me by any stretch) several years ago: The answer to any technical problem will present itself within 30 seconds (sometimes minutes) of asking "Hey, can you take a look at this?"

will_pseudonym 6y ago
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law Cunningham's Law states "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." The concept is named after Ward Cunningham, father of the wiki. According to Steven McGeady, the law's author, Wikipedia may be the most well-known demonstration of this law. Cunningham's Law can be considered the Internet equivalent of the French saying "prêcher le faux pour savoir le vrai" (preach the falsehood to know the truth). Sherlock Holmes has been known to use the principle at times (for example, in The Sign of the Four.)
- silentsea90 6y ago
  Fascinating! How does Sherlock use it? Or put differently, you are completely wrong about Sherlock using it in Sign of the Four. Prove me wrong! ;)
- greggturkington 6y ago
  "If you go to a Linux forum and ask for help fixing your WiFi driver, everyone will ignore you." "If, instead, you say 'Linux sucks, you can't even get a f*&$ing WiFi driver working!' thousands of people will solve the problem for you."
- will_pseudonym 6y ago
  It's not until just now that I realized the irony inherent in my reply. What the person I was replying to did was to "post the wrong answer", and I was uncontrollably impelled to enact the very phenomenon I was describing, completely unaware I was doing so. Whether unintentional or not, it has put a huge smile on my face.
- will_pseudonym 6y ago
  BTW, the entirety of my post after the URL is simply quoting from that page. I would have liked to have remembered to put ">" in front of those paragraphs so it was clear that I didn't write all of that, but c'est la vie.
blackearl 6y ago
I find that usually having a second set of eyes when you do it again usually forces the person to focus, whereas when it wasn't working before they probably had something else on the brain or were on autopilot. I like to call it the IT magic touch or job security.
- dylan604 6y ago
  In a previous job, we used to joke about having a life sized cardboard cutout of the lead engineer left in the head end. Things would not be working "nominally" to the point we needed help. As soon as the engineer would walk in, the erratic behavior would stop. We joked that the equipment only behaved that way when he was not in the room. We wanted to test the theory to see if the equipment knew him or would be fooled by the cutout. You know, for science. Nobody was vested enough to actually pay to have it done though.
lucideer 6y ago
Related phenomenon/technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_ducking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_ducking
- the_af 6y ago
  Obligatory SMBC webcomic about rubber ducking: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-rubber-duck-method https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-rubber-duck-method

will_pseudonym 6y ago

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law Cunningham's Law states "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." The concept is named after Ward Cunningham, father of the wiki. According to Steven McGeady, the law's author, Wikipedia may be the most well-known demonstration of this law. Cunningham's Law can be considered the Internet equivalent of the French saying "prêcher le faux pour savoir le vrai" (preach the falsehood to know the truth). Sherlock Holmes has been known to use the principle at times (for example, in The Sign of the Four.)

silentsea90 6y ago
Fascinating! How does Sherlock use it? Or put differently, you are completely wrong about Sherlock using it in Sign of the Four. Prove me wrong! ;)
greggturkington 6y ago
"If you go to a Linux forum and ask for help fixing your WiFi driver, everyone will ignore you." "If, instead, you say 'Linux sucks, you can't even get a f*&$ing WiFi driver working!' thousands of people will solve the problem for you."
will_pseudonym 6y ago
It's not until just now that I realized the irony inherent in my reply. What the person I was replying to did was to "post the wrong answer", and I was uncontrollably impelled to enact the very phenomenon I was describing, completely unaware I was doing so. Whether unintentional or not, it has put a huge smile on my face.
will_pseudonym 6y ago
BTW, the entirety of my post after the URL is simply quoting from that page. I would have liked to have remembered to put ">" in front of those paragraphs so it was clear that I didn't write all of that, but c'est la vie.

blackearl 6y ago

I find that usually having a second set of eyes when you do it again usually forces the person to focus, whereas when it wasn't working before they probably had something else on the brain or were on autopilot. I like to call it the IT magic touch or job security.

dylan604 6y ago
In a previous job, we used to joke about having a life sized cardboard cutout of the lead engineer left in the head end. Things would not be working "nominally" to the point we needed help. As soon as the engineer would walk in, the erratic behavior would stop. We joked that the equipment only behaved that way when he was not in the room. We wanted to test the theory to see if the equipment knew him or would be fooled by the cutout. You know, for science. Nobody was vested enough to actually pay to have it done though.

lucideer 6y ago

Related phenomenon/technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_ducking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_ducking

the_af 6y ago
Obligatory SMBC webcomic about rubber ducking: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-rubber-duck-method https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-rubber-duck-method