49 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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date: 2025-05-18
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categories:
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- philosophy
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---
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# What is law?
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"What is comedy ? Is this comedy ? What about this?" - Limmy
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### Group Intercommunication Formula: n(n − 1)/2
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The group intercommunication formula calculates the number of potential communication channels or connections in a network of n nodes.
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## Key Questions
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- What is law?
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- Who makes law?
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- Did these people make law?
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## Historical Development
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### 1975: The Mythical Man-Month
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Fred Brooks identified that adding more people to a late software project makes it later, partly due to the increasing communication overhead calculated as n(n - 1)/2.
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### 1983: Metcalfe's Law
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Robert Metcalfe adapted the formula n(n - 1)/2 to describe the value of telecommunications networks (though the text notes "he stole it from Fred").
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### 2008: Beckstrom's Law
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Expanded the concept to: (n(n - 1)/2) * usage * time
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### 2013: Reed's Law
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David Reed proposed an alternative formula for the value of networks that support group formation: 2^N − N − 1
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## Related Concepts
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Is this just Parkinson's Law(s) at work?
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- **Parkinson's Law**: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
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- **Law of Triviality**: Organizations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues
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[The Mythical Man-Month](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month)
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[Metcalfe's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law)
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[Beckstrom's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckstrom's_law)
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[Beckstrom's Networks Paper](https://www.beckstrom.com/images/networks.pdf)
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[Reed's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed%27s_law)
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[Parkinson's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law)
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[Law of triviality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality)
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--- |