The Law of Unintended Consequences

In Thursday's entry on this blog, I complained about nobody reading my blog. I intended to say I hoped John Walkenbach (of the J-Walk Blog, one of my favorites) would pick up an item from my blog, but it was very late and I was tired so for some reason I said Jay Walkenbush instead of John Walkenbach. So, John noticed alright. As he puts it in his blog, “One good way to get noticed by me is to misspell my last name and get the first name wrong.”. Oooops. Entirely unintentional, but it did get me a blog entry in full accordance with the Law of Unintended Consequences, “...often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated or ‘unintended’.” [The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]

Great. I strive for fame and get noticed for a goof-up. Oh well, as John hoped, it did get me some readers; we'll see if any stick around. The power of the Law of Unintended Consequences is, after all, gargantuan.

Posted by trygstad | Category: Personal | 03:36 AM