Tuesday, June 5, 2012

G3. In a 1955 article in 'The Economist', this person used the following opening line: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Name him (just his surname will do, but for brownie points, will appreciate a full name).

A. C. Northcote Parkinson. The statement has come to be known as 'Parkinson's Law'.

Brownie points to Groucho, the only one to get the full name exactly right (Doc M spelt it wrong).

14 comments:

  1. C (cyril) Northcoat Parkinson
    docmurali

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  2. C Northcote Parkinson of Parkinson's Law.

    Ha, that's one business question to which I know the answer.

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  3. Is it Hofstadler, of Hofstadler's Law fame?

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  4. JEEVES! That's the answer to Theme G! I don't know how Hofstadler connects, but Jeeves reads Spinoza and Jeeves is a member of a Ganymede Club. I was actually reading a Wodehouse book (albeit Blandings Castle) when this struck me :)

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  5. If the first name is wrong you won't give the whole thing wrong, right?
    It's something like F. Northcoate Parkinson. Parkinson, at any rate.

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  6. This comes from an older law in economics called the "Says law: Supply creates its own demand." Being in the neo clasical tradition, this gentleman probably belongs to the Chicago school -- is he Milton Friedman ? Not sure what Friedman looks like but he belongs to the genre and the period.

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  7. parkinson

    -raklodramA

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  8. Theme G: Jeeves

    -raklodramA

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