Peers’ Law
The solution to a problem changes the nature of the problem.
John Peers president of Logical Machine Corp was thinking of the way in which many solutions to computer problems tend to create greater problems, according to the introduction to his collection of 1978 collection of sayings, 1001 Logical Laws Accurate Axioms . . . 1979. In fact, though, it applies universally. For example considering our manifold social problems Martin Luther King Jr. came to much the same conclusion: “All progress is precarious and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem” (The Strength to Love, 1963).
The implications of Peers’ Law are good or bad, depending on one’s cast of mind. Thus of four corollaries two are positive and two negative:
Krishnamurti’s Corollary
If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it because the answer is not separate from the problem (Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Penguin Krishnamurti Reader).
Gould’s Corollary
The pleasure of discovery in science derives not only from the satisfaction of new explanations but also, if not more so, from fresh (and often more difficult) puzzles that the novel solutions generate (Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, January 1991).
And on the down side:
Kissinger’s Corollary
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem (Henry A. Kissinger, Wilson Library Bulletin, March 1979).
Baker’s Corollary
A solved problem creates two new problems, and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems than you have to (Russell Baker in Jon Winokur, Friendly Advice, 1990).
Discussion of Peers’ Law
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