LO-list Line Lemma LO29934

From: Jan Lelie (janlelie@wxs.nl)
Date: 02/19/03


Replying to LO29914 --
(was: Who leads an anarchy?)

Hello there, hi Don,

Thanks for the reminder. I was only dimly aware of the use of the elephant
as a "totem". No elephants will be hurt - i hope - by the Republicans
party.

Regarding Hofstadter's Law: you're right! - one should look up everything
one quotes, but it has been perhaps ten years now. The next line in the
book (page 152) reads: "Recursion and unpredictablity" and is about how
recursivelly recalling a line (or slogan, to keep it in the arena of
politics) by a program that's able to slightly change it or itself again
and again leeds to unpredictable outcomes. Well, there is politics for
you! And why it's part of H's Law that it is changing over time. It is
the famous "whispering game", were the original sentence is mutated and
mutated again.

I'm very satisfied with the Lelie Lemma, of course. I like to propose the
LO-List Line Lemma - perhaps to be called the Lelie's LO-List Line Lemma:

"When you understand a LO-list line, you've probably misunderstood the
author".

You're welcome,

Jan

Don Dwiggins wrote:

>It might be worth pointing out, for our non-US participants who didn't
>already know, that the elephant is the "totem" of the Republican party,
>now enjoying ascendancy in the US government.
>
>>Only, be aware of Hofstadters' law: "Everything is more complicated than
>>you think, even if you take into account Hofstadters' law".
>>
>
>Actually, Hofstadter's Law starts out "Things take longer than you think
>..."; perhaps this is Lelie's Lemma?

-- 

Drs J.C. Lelie (Jan, MSc MBA) facilitator mind@work

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