Ronny Kohavi
Twyman's Law of Toddler Behavior
Inspired by Ronny Kohavi episode
If your kid is suddenly being "too good," don't celebrate yet. Investigate. Ronny Kohavi calls this Twyman's Law: data that looks too good to be true usually is.
Your three-year-old who screamed about wearing pants this morning is now sitting quietly. Reading a book. Smiling.
Ronny Kohavi's first reaction when experiment results look amazing? "Find the bug." When Bing's ad revenue jumped 12%, they didn't throw a party. They investigated for days. Nine out of ten times, results that look too good are wrong.
Your kid is in the bathroom. For eleven minutes. Suspiciously silent. You find them with an entire tube of toothpaste squeezed into the sink, quietly conducting "experiments" on whether it dissolves in water. The good behavior wasn't a bug. It was a feature that enabled the toothpaste incident.
Good behavior during screen time negotiations? Check if they already got the iPad. Sudden interest in cleaning their room? Something's hidden under the bed. The celebration dinner can wait. Investigate first.
