All Golden Rules

All Golden Rules A–Z

• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
• A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
• A penny saved is a penny earned
• A picture is worth a thousand words
• A stitch in time saves nine
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder
• Actions speak louder than words
• All good things must come to an end
• All that glitters is not gold
• Always be closing (ABC)
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
• Assume every gun is loaded
• Beggars can't be choosers
• Better safe than sorry
• Birds of a feather flock together
• Blood is thicker than water
• Brooks's Law - Adding people to a late project makes it later
• Buy low, sell high
• Cash is king
• Choose your battles
• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Convention over configuration
• Conway's Law - Organizations design systems that mirror their communication structure
• Culture eats strategy for breakfast
• Divide and conquer
• Don't bite off more than you can chew
• Don't burn bridges
• Don't count your chickens before they hatch
• Don't cross that bridge until you come to it
• Don't cry over spilled milk
• Don't judge a book by its cover
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
• Don't make me think
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket
• Don't put the cart before the horse
• Don't reinvent the wheel
• Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)
• Don't shoot the messenger
• Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
• Done is better than perfect
• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have
• Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise
• Eat your own dog food
• Every cloud has a silver lining
• Fail fast, fail often
• Fail to plan, plan to fail
• Fake it till you make it
• Fight fire with fire
• First impressions last
• First, do no harm
• Form follows function
• Fortune favors the bold
• Give credit where credit is due
• Good things come to those who wait
• Goodhart's Law - When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
• Hanlon's Razor - Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity
• Haste makes waste
• Hire slow, fire fast
• Hofstadter's Law - It always takes longer than you expect
• Honesty is the best policy
• Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
• Hope is not a strategy
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it
• If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough
• If you can't measure it, you can't improve it
• If you want something done right, do it yourself
• It's not what you know, it's who you know
• Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
• Kill two birds with one stone
• KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid
• Know your enemy
• Knowledge is power
• Lead by example
• Less is more
• Location, location, location
• Look before you leap
• Love conquers all
• Make it work, make it right, make it fast
• Many hands make light work
• Measure twice, cut once
• Mind over matter
• Money can't buy happiness
• Move fast and break things
• Murphy's Law - Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong
• Necessity is the mother of invention
• Never go to bed angry
• Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today
• No man is an island
• No pain, no gain
• Nothing ventured, nothing gained
• Occam's Razor - The simplest explanation is usually correct
• Opposites attract
• Parkinson's Law - Work expands to fill the time available
• Patience is a virtue
• Perfect is the enemy of good
• Practice makes perfect
• Praise in public, criticize in private
• Premature optimization is the root of all evil
• Quality over quantity
• Read the room
• Respect is earned, not given
• Rome wasn't built in a day
• Rubber duck debugging
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood
• Separation of concerns
• Ship it
• Show, don't tell
• Silence is golden
• Sleep on it
• Slow and steady wins the race
• Start with why
• Still waters run deep
• Strike while the iron is hot
• Test early, test often
• The 80/20 Rule - Focus on what matters most
• The apple doesn't fall far from the tree
• The best defense is a good offense
• The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now
• The customer is always right
• The devil is in the details
• The devil you know is better than the devil you don't
• The early bird catches the worm
• The grass is always greener on the other side
• The Lindy Effect - The longer something has survived, the longer it will likely continue
• The pen is mightier than the sword
• The Platinum Rule - Treat others the way they want to be treated
• The proof is in the pudding
• The road to hell is paved with good intentions
• The squeaky wheel gets the grease
• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Think before you speak
• Think global, act local
• Time is money
• Too many cooks spoil the broth
• Treat others as you would like to be treated
• Trust but verify
• Two heads are better than one
• Under promise, over deliver
• United we stand, divided we fall
• Walk a mile in someone else's shoes
• What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
• What goes around comes around
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do
• When it rains, it pours
• Where there's a will, there's a way
• Where there's smoke, there's fire
• Work smarter, not harder
• Worse is better
• YAGNI - You Aren't Gonna Need It
• You are what you eat
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink
• You can't have your cake and eat it too
• You can't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree
• You get what you pay for
• You miss 100% of the shots you don't take
• You reap what you sow