Nik's Laws: Don't Arm your Future Enemy

Hey world (and Barack and the useless heap of Congress) are you listening?

Nik's Laws: Mortgage Interest Deductability

Eliminating the mortgage interest deductability on income taxes will have the effect of instantly reducing all house prices by 10-30%. Such an attempt to increase federal tax receipts would have the inverse effect, as it would push the economy soundly into a double-dip recession, would degrade the capital stock of most US financial institutions at a time of increased capital requirements, would push a new tier of homeowners underwater, and would trigger a new round of bankruptcies for those on the margin.

Nik's Laws: Profit

If profit is outlawed, only outlaws will profit.

Nik's Laws: Croaking Canaries

The states are the canaries in the mine of our economy.

Nik's Laws

If Murphy and Confucius can do it, so can I.

• Nik's Law On Duration: Task duration will expand to fill the time allotted, plus 15%.
• Nik's Law on Productivity: 49% of the work is completed in the first 10% of the available time. 49% of the work is completed in the last 10% of the available time.

Lesson: Budget accordingly. To manage time consumption, assign aggressive time frames, but only one milestone at a time. These serve as checkpoints where you can adjust the tack and method as necessary. Work should be "mashed up" as rapidly and free-form as possible in the first 10% of the time by creative souls. Then, a new team should take over. They should have a skill set more focused on organization, metrics, and steady implementation. The creative team should step back in for the last 10%.