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+---
+title: "Fitzpatrick's First Law"
+date: '2004-01-13T12:16:01-05:00'
+permalink: /fitzpatricks-first-law/
+tags:
+    - internets
+    - 'random thoughts'
+---
+
+[John Brockman](http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/brockman.html), president of [Edge Foundation](http://www.edge.org/), has posed his [annual question](http://www.edge.org/q2004/q04_print.html) to his collection of the digerati:
+
+> There is some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some law-like pattern, either grand or small, that you’ve noticed in the universe that might as well be named after you. Gordon Moore has one; Johannes Kepler and Michael Faraday, too. So does Murphy.
+>
+> Since you are so bright, you probably have at least two you can articulate. Send me two laws based on your empirical work and observations you would not mind having tagged with your name. Stick to science and to those scientific areas where you have expertise. Avoid flippancy. Remember, your name will be attached to your law.
+
+The results are fascinating. Mathematician Keith Devlin’s laws, for instance:
+
+> **Devlin’s First Law**
+>
+> Buyer beware: in the hands of a charlatan, mathematics can be used to make a vacuous argument look impressive.
+>
+> **Devlin’s Second Law**
+>
+> So can PowerPoint.
+
+So, in the spirit of the exercise:
+
+> **Fitzpatrick’s First Law**
+>
+> The louder the claims of a cultural form’s “death,” the less likely such claims are to be true.
+
+Now your turn: what’s your law? \[Via [Kottke](http://www.kottke.org/04/01/whats-your-law).\]
+