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90% of everything...

11/28/06 | by David Raffin [mail] | Categories: Quotes

Weblogs, podcasts, books, video, consumer goods, 90% of everything is crap.
Even with great technology, shoddy implementation and/or content reigns.

Wikipedia:

Sturgeon’s Law is an adage derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon: “Nothing is always absolutely so.” The name is also frequently used for an adage that is more correctly known as Sturgeon’s Revelation: “Ninety percent of everything is crud". In fact, most modern uses of the term Sturgeon’s Law actually refer to the Revelation, including the definition currently listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

further:

The meaning of Sturgeon’s Revelation was explicitly detailed by Sturgeon himself. He made his original remarks in direct response to ill-conceived attacks against science fiction that used “the worst examples of the field for ammunition". Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crud is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other artistic artifacts do.
Sturgeon’s Law may be regarded as an instance of the Pareto principle.

1 comment

Comment from: chardman [Visitor] Email
I have been a longtime subscriber to Sturgeon's Law and as such, I don't lament it, rather I embrace it.
That 10% is often sublime, and the 90% gives a safe margin for its living exemplars to inhabit and stay the fuck out of my way.
I am a hunter-gatherer in a wash n' wear world.
11/29/06 @ 11:53

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