Anyone else a firm beliver in Sturgeon's Law?

Sturgeon's Law. 90% of everything is crap. I believe it applies to just about everything.

Personally I think Sturgeon's Law gets trotted out as much as YMMV to shut up and stop looking critically at things. Why bother to weigh the merits of something when you can just file it off as that 90% of stuff you don't like? And funny thing about Sturgeon's Law - that 10% that is good tends to vary from person to person, almost always as the stuff they happen to like.

I think that Sturgeon's law does apply, but...well...what's crap for some, is a treasure for others...

Only thing what I can say about this law that it is part of this 90% of everything.

Yeah I do belive that law is a crud.

It promote binary view on stuff cool/crap like/hate it. And nothing between.

And most of stuff in reallity is between those.

It is a very silly idea, in my opinion.

It's fun, but I haven't found it to be of much practical use as most of the hypothetical 90% never gets exposed to the wider world. Besides, trying to apply it seriously reeks of confirmation bias.

Pretty well bullshit, just like everything else that tries to objectify opinions.

In the end, you can only ask yourself "who gives a flying fuck?"

I prefer "90% of everything is So Okay, It's Average", actually.

It applies to craigslist ads and youtube comments.

I prefer "100% of everything can be improved".

It's right, but inaccurately worded.

I'd go with "90% of everything is stuff you personally wouldn't be interested in."

I have no interest in buying moe anime, books on iguana care, apple corers, maps of Sweden, polka albums, diet pills, diamond jewelry, or souvenir keychains. Does that mean all of those things are objectively crap? of course not. Just not my cups of tea.

I'd say that just like no more than 10% of something could be described as good, no more than 10% it could be decribed as "crap." Probably only about 3-5% is So Bad Its Horrible.

The other 80% is in the middle somewhere.

But that's not very concise.

edited 29th May '11 3:31:02 AM by Wheezy

Wait, if 90% of everything is crap, does it follow that 90% of the 10% that is not bound to be crap by Sturgeon's Law is also crap, and hence that

90% + 0.9 * 10% = 99% of everything is crap?

And iterating the procedure, 90% of the remaining 1% is crap, and hence 99.9% of everything is crap?

And so on, and so on, and so on, and in conclusion 99.99999....% = 100% of everything is crap?

edited 29th May '11 3:25:42 AM by Carciofus

"The other 10% is also crap."

But honestly?

"100% of everything will be subjective to your tastes."

Also, is 90% a lower bound or a precise estimate?

Because in the second case, one ton of organic fertilizer is an easy counterexample to Sturgeon's Law.

edited 29th May '11 3:34:27 AM by Carciofus

You can learn from everything (including what not to do) and even the terrible things can be quite enjoyable with the perspective.

The Law is there and in full effect but only if you're trying to be "normal".

Another dormant post

I say, some I find hateable, most is So Okay, It's Average to boring, pointless and uninteresting, and very few in this world is enjoyable

edited 5th Jan '13 3:18:02 AM by SentaiToku

Now that's one hell of a necro.

Anyway, I'd say that Sturgeon's Law is merely a description of people's opinions: 'Any given person will probably like at most 10% of works in any given genre/medium.'

It certainly applies to the barracks at Ft. Hood. 90% of them royally suck, unless you are one of those lucky bastards in 1st or 3rd Cav.

I personally feel like everything has some sort of value as a work. Even if it isn't a good work, it'd then have value as a way of seeing what not to do. Even aside from that, everything has its fans. The Room has fans. The universally reviled Jack and Jill has fans. Even Manos The Hands Of Fate has fans who watch it unironically.

Still, I do feel that the majority of works out there probably are neither excellent nor "teh suckzorz", as we say in my country, but everything still has somebody that likes it.

edited 5th Jan '13 1:30:09 PM by 0dd1

For most people, it's probably a bell curve, although I'm guessing a few people might think most things are good/most things are bad.

BELLCURVECEPTION!

I don't see how that random Inception works here at all.

God, I though people got sick of saying "XCEPTION!!!LOL!!".

Most people think most thinks are okay, i.e., a bell curve. Only a few think most things are bad or most things are good. Therefore, people fit into a bell curve on how they think of things, while most people think of a bell curve when they think of the quality of things.

Also, horrible memes will never die as long as I live, therefore, you must challenge me to an epic planet-busting duel and kill me in Mortal Kombat if you wish end to such asinine cockery.

edited 5th Jan '13 2:55:53 PM by Ekuran

Yeah, it tires me to see people spamming "Inception" all over the place instead of just saying 'recursion' or 'meta-'.

But what would I have left if I can't use terrible and outdated jokes?

What, I say, what?

edited 5th Jan '13 3:06:16 PM by Ekuran

An arrow in the knee.