Understand
the pattern.
Test the law.
Rigorous, visual explanations of the laws, principles, effects, and recurring patterns used to understand nature, minds, systems, organizations, mathematics, technology, and culture.
ATLAS
What it says.
Why it works.
Where it breaks.
Start with the pattern you are trying to explain.
Search titles, domains, mechanisms, applications, and evidence classifications across the full library.
What can fail?
Map reachable failure paths before they become incidents.
Murphy's Law ->02Why did the metric collapse?
Separate the target from the outcome it was meant to represent.
Goodhart's Law ->03How does a network gain value?
Count possible links, then test compatibility, activity, and cost.
Metcalfe's Law ->04Why can no heat engine be perfect?
Follow energy, entropy, and the temperature difference.
Second Law of Thermodynamics ->Three different kinds of limit.
Network scale, human social capacity, and physical irreversibility - each requires a different model and a different standard of evidence.
Mathematics & Probability / Probability
Law of Large Numbers
Sample averages, convergence, weak and strong forms, finite-sample uncertainty, and the gambler fallacy.Technology & Computation / Software Engineering
Brooks's Law
Why late staffing can add onboarding, communication, and integration work faster than productive capacity.Culture & Communication / Media Effects
Brandolini's Law
Why producing a misleading claim can be cheap while checking, explaining, and correcting it is slow.Six laws that reveal the range.
Move from engineering failure to incentives, distributions, language, prioritization, and human-computer interaction.
Murphy's Law
Failure paths, reliability, and defensive design in complex systems.
Heuristic->02Goodhart's Law
When people are rewarded for a proxy, they adapt to the proxy, weakening the relationship between the number and the goal it once represented.
Heuristic->03Benford's Law
In many naturally occurring datasets, the leading digit is 1 far more often than 9, following a logarithmic distribution.
Mathematical->04Zipf's Law
In many large language samples, a word's frequency is approximately inversely proportional to its rank.
Empirical->05Pareto Principle
Concentration, the vital few, Pareto charts, power-law tails, and disciplined prioritization.
Heuristic->06Fitts's Law
Movement time, target distance and width, speed-accuracy trade-offs, and pointing-device evaluation.
Scientific->Not everything called a law makes the same claim.
A physical principle, statistical regularity, historical trend, and design aphorism should never be presented as equivalent evidence.
Measured relationships supported within a defined physical or behavioral domain.
18 guides02MathematicalFormal or statistical regularities grounded in quantitative structure.
30 guides03EmpiricalPersistent observed patterns whose continuation is not logically guaranteed.
24 guides04HeuristicPractical rules for reasoning and design, not universal laws of nature.
28 guidesSeven ways into the collection.
Each domain has a stable subcategory map, so the library can grow without becoming an alphabetical pile.
Nature & Cosmos
How does the physical world behave across scale?
Physics / Chemistry / Cosmos / Earth Systems / Life & EvolutionMind & Behavior
How do minds detect, decide, learn, and act?
Perception / Cognitive Biases / Decision Making / Social BehaviorSystems & Complexity
What changes when many parts begin interacting?
Risk & Failure / Feedback Loops / Networks / EmergenceEconomics & Organizations
How do incentives and institutions reshape behavior?
Incentives / Markets / Management / MetricsMathematics & Probability
Which patterns follow from structure and uncertainty?
Probability / Statistics / Distributions / Game TheoryTechnology & Computation
How do engineered information systems scale?
Computing / Software Engineering / Information Theory / PlatformsCulture & Communication
How do symbols, stories, and beliefs spread?
Language / Media Effects / Memes / Collective Belief