Law of Demonstrations

Thursday 26th September, 2013

Google is not my friend. Or maybe it is.

Apparently, there is no prior source of “The Law of Demonstrations.” As something I’ve been quoting for most of my 20 year career, I was astounded to find that there is no source for this. If anyone has a source, I’d love to know. You’ve never heard of it?

For the record, the law is:

The number of problems encountered during a demonstration are directly proportional to the number of people to whom you are demonstrating.

Whilst I’d love to claim ownership ( if dear old Betteridge can have one, why can’t I ? ;-) ), I’m pretty sure someone cleverer, or more cynical, must have beaten me too it. However, I’d like to propose Dyce’s Corollary:

When trying to demonstrate a problem, the relationship is inversely proportional.

Of course, I’m sure that’s been taken too… oh well.