The rule of law
There are a few laws and principles of economics, psychology, etc. that have strong applicability to Software Development. Here are the ones I find most interesting. Goodhart’s law – “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. It will be the inclination, and, in fact, may be in people’s best interest for them to game the system by changing their behavior in such a way as to favorably adjust the measure in order to achieve the target” The Hawthorne effect – “The researchers were surprised to find that the productivity of the more highly illuminated workers increased much more than that of the control group…their productivity even improved when the lights were dimmed again. By the time everything had been returned to the way it was before the changes had begun, productivity at the factory was at its highest level” Jevons paradox – “occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one