Is nothing sacred? Apparently, Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, rules he came up with during his 33 years at Raytheon, were written down, after all. An observant engineer, Carl Durrenberger, noticed the similarities between Swanson's rules and W.J. King's The Unwritten Laws of Engineering published in 1944. He subsequently posted the accusation,"Bill Swanson of Raytheon is a plagiarist!" on his blog.

What happens next? Swanson apologises for the misunderstanding and not attributing the rules to the correct sources, the Board of Raytheon dock his pay and his little manuals are no longer being distributed.

Bah. And I was so inspired too.