Rules of Thumb

A stylish, timeless guide to laws and principles that can help us make decisions and navigate our everyday lives.

There are laws of nature—like gravity, thermodynamics, and Newtonian principles—that help explain our reality. And then there are rules of thumb, many of which cannot be scientifically proven and yet are clearly true. Pocket-sized, practical, and studded with whimsical illustrations, this small but mighty book offers us forty-four of the best unwritten laws and mental models for posterity.

These include:

• Parkinson’s law, which says that any meeting, project, or task will take at least as much time as you’ve allotted for it.
• The Pareto Principle, which explains how 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
• And Murphy’s Law, which dictates that if something can go wrong, it will .?.?.

Some of these truisms are world-famous; some well-kept secrets. Some are tongue-in-cheek; others imbue wisdom. But they all have one thing in common: They illuminate working life better than any MBA. From KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) to the IKEA Effect (we’re partial toward things we’ve had a hand in making), these models will help you manage your time, make smarter decisions, and survive anything the world throws at you.