[jmchuster]

I think it might be more useful to think of this as a list that could help you expose "unknown unknowns". These aren't ironclad rules, but they are each a piece of gathered advice that hold some truth in some context. So if you encounter one that makes no sense, then great, that's a potential blind spot that you've transformed from an "unknown unknown" to a "known unknown".

So let's take your example of Hofstadter's Law

> It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

So your reaction to this might be one of:

- Yes, that's a funny way to put it. I've spent many years estimating projects and matching up the final time taken, and even though i've gotten better at it, i still underestimate a little on each project. Here are different patterns i've seen for how my estimates end up going wrong. Here are different approaches i use now to try to mitigate how wrong my estimates end up being.

- Huh, that's interesting. I've just started being a manager, and i've been wondering why everything seems to take longer than i expect. Am i just the only one who is bad at estimating? Or is this some kind of problem that everyone encounters. Maybe i should look up techniques or ask advice on this subject.

- I don't know what this means. Why would anyone's estimates be wrong? Writing a website is like making a ham sandwich right? Once you do it once or twice, you must be able to estimate it perfectly every time.

[GuestHNUser]

>These aren't ironclad rules, but they are each a piece of gathered advice that hold some truth in some context.

This is spot on. There is a time and a place for these "laws" which is sometimes forgotten. Don't be dogmatic about following them. They will be detrimental to a team following them blindly.