Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M0444

Sturgeon's Law

Sturgeon's Law
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Sturgeon’s law is author Theodore Sturgeon’s adage that “ninety percent of everything is crap.” It counters dismissing science fiction based on poor examples. The percentage is not an established universal rate or a cosmic constant.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

Do not dismiss an entire field because of low-quality samples; make selection standards explicit.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

The adage extends the same criticism to other fields to expose unfair representation by poor works. It offers no scientific mechanism for a fixed quality distribution.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_lawZH · Explicit
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