How do celebrity deaths conform to hofstadter s law?
You’ve probably heard of Murphy’s Law—”if anything can go wrong, it will.” But Murphy has a kindred spirit in author Douglas Hofstadter. Hofstadter’s Law, if you’ve never heard it, states: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” Computer programmers say Hofstadter’s Law rings true to their work on complex projects that take years to complete. We’ve all experienced how a project expands to fit the time available. But why do we tend to underestimate the length of any given task? By the evening, the goals on our morning’s to-do list seem laughable. This may be because we tend to set too many goals: In addition to wanting to get a project done, we also want to keep up with our favorite TV program, cook nice meals and stay in touch with friends. But to successfully reach any goal, we need a reason to place it higher than our other goals and desires. Then we can allocate our resources more efficiently.
