Sturgeon's law

ops culture

'Ninety percent of everything is crap.'

Science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon coined it in the 1950s defending his genre: critics judged SF by its worst examples, though ninety percent of everything, in any field, is equally poor. Engineers reach for it when evaluating plugin ecosystems, npm search results, and conference submissions. The corollary matters more than the law: judge a field by its best ten percent.

Also known as: Sturgeon's revelation

← All glossary entries