TITLE: Marick's Law
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 08, 2015  4:20 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
This morning, I wanted to send 
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/wallingf/status/652115657446703105">
   Michael Feathers</A>
a link to Marick's Law.  The only link I could find to it
was
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/marick/status/1511939328">
   a tweet</A>
of Brian's.  This law is too important to be left vulnerable
to the vagaries of an internet service, so let's give it a
permanent home:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 In software, anything of the form "X's Law" is better
 understood by replacing the word "Law" with "Fervent
 Desire".
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a beautiful observation, lovingly and consciously
self-referential.  I think of it almost daily.  Use it well.

<P ALIGN="center">~~~~~</P>

<EM>Historical note</EM>.  &nbsp;&nbsp;  When I searched for
Marick's Law, I did find reference to another law going by
the same name.
<A HREF="https://sites.google.com/site/unclebobconsultingllc/maricks-law">
   Uncle Bob</A>
calls this Marick's Law: "When it comes to code, it never pays
to rush."  This is a useful aphorism as well, and perhaps
Brian once called it Marick's Law, too.  Uncle Bob's post is
dated November 2008.  Brian's coining tweet is dated April 2009.
I'm going to stick with the first-person post as definitive and
observe that Brian, like Whitman, is large and contains multitudes.

I cannot help but notice that we can and should apply the
definitive Marick's Law to the secondhand quote given by Uncle
Bob.  Many of us fervently desire it to be true that, when it
comes to code, it never pays to rush.  If it's not, then many
of our best practices need an overhaul.  Besides, we fear deep
in our hearts that sometimes it probably does pay to rush.
-----