Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was a prolific science fiction writer, at one time the most anthologized writer in the genre. In addition to shorts and novels, Sturgeon wrote the screenplays for the Original Series Star Trek episodes “Shore Leave” and “Amok Time,” the latter of which introduced the concepts of pon farr and “Live Long and Prosper.” An unpublished screenplay of Sturgeon’s was also the first to include the Prime Directive.
Sturgeon first stated his Sturgeon’s Revelation (what we now call Sturgeon’s Law) in 1951, and in 1958 published it for the first time in Venture magazine.
“Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. is crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other artforms.”
In modern times, the Law is usually stated more concisely as,
“Ninety percent of everything is crap.”
In keeping with Stigler’s Law, Sturgeon was preceded by Rudyard Kipling, who in 1890 wrote,
“Four–fifths of everybody’s work must be bad. But the remnant is worth the trouble for its own sake.”