kalium comments on Local truth - Less Wrong Discussion
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Indeed! The notion of the octet rule being a "foundation of chemistry" when boron compounds typically have an incomplete octet and phosphorus and sulphur compounds (like SF_6) often exceed the octet... I guess you could call this "classical chemistry" in the sense of "classical physics"---a lie that covers most of the bases and gets corrected a couple years later for those who are interested enough to keep studying.