Witticism and Sturgeon's Law
Jul. 5th, 2006 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_tectonicWhile hanging out at the barbecue last night, I managed to get some humorous mileage out of Sturgeon's Law ("90% of everything is crap").
Chris: I'm not sure I buy that. How does that work with the fact that 75% of my body is water? Aren't I made mostly of water, not crap?
Me: It just means that 90% of the water in your body is shoddily-built, poorly-designed, sub-standard crap! It's lousy water that's overpriced and doesn't work very well!
...
Me: And 90%, that's a hard number. It's exact. It's exactly 90% of everything.
Neal: Right! And if you get a number that's not 90%, that means you've either included too much or not enough, and you have to adjust.
Me: No! It means that your arithmetic is crap, too!
Chris: I'm not sure I buy that. How does that work with the fact that 75% of my body is water? Aren't I made mostly of water, not crap?
Me: It just means that 90% of the water in your body is shoddily-built, poorly-designed, sub-standard crap! It's lousy water that's overpriced and doesn't work very well!
...
Me: And 90%, that's a hard number. It's exact. It's exactly 90% of everything.
Neal: Right! And if you get a number that's not 90%, that means you've either included too much or not enough, and you have to adjust.
Me: No! It means that your arithmetic is crap, too!
