10 Laws Of Technology

These 10 laws of technology are derived from the catalogue of practical behaviour, experiences & study of human psychology. The patterns of behaviour that I have observed within the technology teams that design, build and operate technologies has been consistent over the last 20 years. These 10 laws might give you an insight into what the future holds for the technology platform and applications that you are working on.

1. The benefits of the ‘NEW’ technology will always be overestimated.

Galileo puts together a telescope that could be used for astronomical purposes, he is now able to spot new worlds. He estimates that within few years his invention would make all the religions redundant. Never happened. Similar overestimations are happening in the technology industry and organizations every day when a new technology is discussed. 

2. More complex technology becomes, the more tightly it will embrace the problem.

Aswan Dam was built to control floods. But it redirected Nile's fertilising sediments. Factories were set up to make artificial fertilizer. Eventually, these factories used up all the dam's energy.

“Complicated technology will eventually oppose its own purpose of existence”

Although it may seem counterintuitive, as technology becomes more complex its outputs begin to change to preserve or even intensify the problem that it originally designed to solve. If the problem is ever "solved," the technology will become unnecessary, which means that the technology has a vested interest in maintaining the existence of the problem it was originally designed to bypass or eliminate. Eventually, the technology takes on the new goal of preserving the original problem to preserve its own existence and the ecosystem of people working on it.

3. Complex technology application on steroids that grow fast and will die of absurdity

Egyptian kings were buried in simple brick structures that gradually became more elaborate. They eventually became the pyramids, financing these "monsters of pride" created unbearable stress that brought down the Egyptian empire.

Organizations tend to build these technology “monsters of pride” all the time.

4: The is no permanent technology solution to a business problem

The word ’Solution’ is only a fancy term for the response of system A (ourselves) to system B (the problem). System B will develop a new variant and will make a comeback in response to our response, and then we must respond once again.

5. New technology means new problems. 

 A simple Biplane of the early 1900s could land in a ploughed field. Boeing 747 needs 3 Km of reinforced concrete to land. A Concorde or the space shuttle could hardly land.

Instead of there being just the one original problem, now there is the original problem plus the problems generated by the new technology capability.

6. Technology teams that love & study their bugs will prosper.

Fleming forgetfully left lab bacteria in an open Petri dish. Penicillium fungus settled on the bacteria, killing their growth This was a "bug" - but instead of ignoring or hiding it, Fleming studied it. This is how Antibiotics were born, changing medicine forever.

7. More technology resources will not improve the outcome. 

According to simple maths, if five programmers can write a program in five days, twenty-five programmers should be able to write the same program in one day.

What happens is that the multiplication of resources massively increases the amount of communication required to achieve the desired goal. The more systems that must function together, the more time they spend trying to communicate rather than working on the problem.

 8. Age of the technology application is directly proportional to the resistance to change

At some point, the effort required to change becomes greater than the resources available to make that change. When this occurs, the technology platforms final insulation from its environment begins. Soon no reality will get through to the controlling elements at all. The closed positive feedback loop is complete. And the only way the original problem will be solved is by the creation of an entirely new platform.

9. For a new technology implementation the requirements will not be completely known until after the users have used it.

It is impossible for business analysts to predict all the possible scenarios as there are only a few of them and there can be millions of production users.

10. Attempting to reach 100% perfection of planning will require 100% of resources

Perfection is a sign of team decay. Perfection of planning is a team’s cultural fault; they will fail to respond to changing reality and will make matters worse by directing the team’s attention from real work to unproductive paper shuffling. Then the plan must be developed, which means meetings, committees, status reports, and the thousand-and-one other means by which productive activity is squelched and reality is filtered from reaching the decision-making elements.