01
Parkinson's Law
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Give a task a week and it takes a week. Tight, honest deadlines are a feature, not a threat.
Eleven timeless mental models that quietly govern software, teams, and the decisions in between — the principles we keep close while we build.
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Give a task a week and it takes a week. Tight, honest deadlines are a feature, not a threat.
It always takes longer than you expect — even when you account for Hofstadter's Law.
Estimate, then pad. Then pad again. Complex work hides its own tail.
Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by carelessness.
Most bad outcomes are mistakes, not plots. Assume good faith and you save everyone a fight.
Roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.
Find the vital few. Ship those first, and the rest matters less than you think.
People rise to their level of incompetence.
Being great at a job isn't proof you'll be great at the next one up.
The more choices you offer, the longer every decision takes.
Fewer options, faster action. Design the menu, not the buffet.
When a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure.
Optimize a metric and people game the metric. Watch the outcome it was standing in for.
The less you know, the more you overestimate how much you know.
Confidence peaks where competence is thinnest. Stay curious near the edges of what you know.
The simplest explanation that fits the facts is usually the right one.
Don't invent complexity the evidence doesn't demand.
Don't tear down a fence until you know why it was put up.
Understand the rule before you break it — it may be holding something back.
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
Nine people can't do in one month what one person does in nine.
We build with these in mind. If that's the kind of team you want, let's talk.