>[!abstract] >Hofstadter's law is a self-referential adage, coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his book [[Hofstadter, 1979|Gödel, Escher, Bach]] to describe the widely experienced difficulty of accurately estimating the time it will take to complete tasks of substantial complexity: "*Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law*" (Wikipedia, 2025). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): [[Brooks' law]] >- **East** (different): — >- **South** (downstream): —