IBM Pollyanna Principle

English

Etymology

From Pollyanna principle, and in reference to the technology company IBM.

Proper noun

the IBM Pollyanna Principle

1. The axiom that "machines should work; people should think".

   e.g. machines should do all the hard work, freeing people to think (hence the reference to Pollyanna)

   e.g. most of the world's major problems result from machines that fail to work, and people who fail to think.

References

• Bloch, Arthur (1977) Murphy's Law and other reasons why things go wrong, Price Stern Sloan, →ISBN, page 41