Favourite Sketches of 2024: Hanlon's Razor

A behind the scenes look at the sketches that resonated and stay with me

In this series, I revisit with personal commentary sketches that:

• Seemed to resonate most with readers

• Are personal highlights for me

• I keep coming back to and resharing or referencing

Perhaps it will remind you of a few you enjoyed, or introduce you to some you missed. As always, I've linked to the full sketches to dive deeper.

Previous favourite sketches of 2024: first, second, and third.

This kind of behind-the-scenes post is for paid subscribers — but the weekly sketches stay free as always.

I know you and I are never guilty of this.

Original post | Prints

I learned Hanlon's Razor after someone shared it with me from my Fundamental Attribution Error sketch—I learn so much from doing this!

Before sketching it, I ordered a rumpled, yellowed copy of the source: Murphy's Law Book Two by Arthur Bloch. (Murphy's Law, as I published recently, is: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.)

The book is a collection of submitted "wisdom" and proverbial-type advice. It's fun as you get to attach your name to your pithy sentence and append a fancy philosophical-sounding term like razor, rule, or postulate to it. Here are some other fun pieces of "wisdom" from it:

Warren's Rule

To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.