Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Sturgeon's Law

Another gem from the Oxford English Dictionary on-line Word of the Day

Sturgeon's Law, n.

"A humorous aphorism which maintains that most of any body of published material, knowledge, etc., or (more generally) of everything is worthless: based on a statement by Sturgeon (see quot. 1958), usually later cited as '90 per cent of everything is crap'.

"[1958 T.H. Sturgeon in Venture Sci. Fiction Mar. 66/2 It is in this vein that I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against the attacks of people...whose conclusion was that ninety percent of s f is crud. The Revelation: Ninety percent of everything is crud."

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