Hofstadter's Law An Idea by Douglas Hofstadter en.wikipedia.org It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. On the "Building" of Software and WebsitesDeadlines are bullshitParkinson's Law recursionself-referenceplanningtime
The arbitrariness of the sign A key difference between verbal language and the modernist ideal of a visual “language” is the arbitrariness of a verbal sign, which has no natural, inherent relationship to the concept it represents. The sound of the word “horse”, for example, does not innately resemble the concept of a horse. Ferdinand de Saussure called this arbitrariness the fundamental feature of the verbal sign. The meaning of a sign is generated by its relationship to other signs in the language: the sign’s legibility lies in its difference from other signs. Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, The ABC's of ▲■●: The Bauhaus and Design Theory Gods of the Word soundmeaninglanguage