Hofstadter's law
Source status: Source not yet verified by the archive.
Tasks always take longer than expected, even when this law is considered.
In context
This law belongs with Murphy's Laws, where small assumptions, timing, and system complexity tend to turn into memorable failures.
Editorial note
Planning estimates remain vulnerable to hidden work even when teams try to compensate for their usual optimism.
Practical example: A migration estimate includes validation and rollback time, then still reserves contingency for unknown data problems.
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