Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

What Is Hofstadter’s Law?

What Is Hofstadter’s Law?
Hofstadter’s Law says that whatever you are trying to accomplish will take longer than you expect it to. And this is true even after you take Hofstadter’s Law into account.

This fist hit me as a little crazy and then – on reflection – I instinctively knew it was true.

I mean, for a given IT project, it is almost a joke the way that the timeline sort of expands as you go.

  • If the customer thinks it will take one week.
  • Then the developer will estimate two weeks.
  • And it will be four weeks before the changes make it to production.

Certainly, this is true for most other projects too.

I have found that it holds in blogging.

You think you are going to hit certain milestones and traffic metrics by a certain date.

And then it takes much longer than you planned for.

The fun new thing starts to look at lot like work and you suddenly wonder if you made the right choice.

All I know to combat this is what I have said before: Turn your goals into systems.

It always takes longer than expected, per Hofstadter’s Law, even when—and this is the critical part—one takes Hofstadter’s Law into account.

-Ryan Holiday, Conspiracy

You Have To Be Patient

You Have To Be Patient

You have to be patient.

Why?

Because patience is more powerful than you think it is.

Work accrues and builds momentum, even if it does not look like it at first.

Even if the beginning is small.

One who writes for an hour is not a writer.
But one who writes an hour every day of their lives is.

One who paints for an hour is not a painter.
But one who paints an hour every day of their lives is.

See, I think that action over time will breed identity.

With work, and patience, and time – I think you can do nearly anything.

For if a flow of patient water can dig The Grand Canyon, what might you do?

Time can be magic, if you want to know the truth.

“With patience and resources,” Mr. A would come to say often on his weekly calls with Peter, “we can do almost anything.” Tolstoy had a motto for Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov in War and Peace—“ Patience and Time.” “There is nothing stronger than those two,” he said, “. . . they will do it all.” In 1812 and in real life, Kutuzov gave Napoleon an abject lesson in the truth of that during a long Russian winter.

-Ryan Holiday, Conspiracy

Sterling Terrell