• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Discuss Murphy's Law

Muse

Muse

Lifer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

Myself, I regard it with great mistrust! 😀 Yes, that sounds ironic, I'm sure. The simple fact is that if everything that could go wrong does go wrong we'd all be dead right now. There are sooooooo many things that can go wrong that don't. If ML were true, you'd be an idiot to get on the freeway. 😎

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be careful and make allowances for error and failure. But you have to be reasonable, otherwise you could be obsessive, anal, paranoid, in short a nut. I do like playing the odds.

If you take ML too far, you become a worry-wort, right? I have a little book that an old girlfriend gave me. It's humor, illustrated with cartoons, entitled "The Worry Book." It's in two parts. Hold the book one way and it's called "The Worry Book for Woman." On the cover is a cartoon illustration of a woman with furrowed brow, silently wondering "Those Cramps could be appendicitis," "I wonder if he's cheating on me right now?" "I should be carrying my mace." "Smiling causes wrinkles."

Hold the book other way and it's "The Worry Book for Men." On the cover is a guy thinking "My headache may really be a brain tumor," "I wonder if she's cheating on me right now," "Maybe I should switch to bottled water," "is my fly open?"
 
Murphy's Law is not a statement suggesting absolutely everything that can or could have gone wrong, will or has gone wrong.
It's more a statement regarding luck of the draw and planning strategy - plan for all plans to go out the window, for shit to go wrong, and for your worst nightmare to possibly come true. 😉

Any strategists will fully accept Murphy's Law. It's not a guarantee - but it is rare for any detailed plan to actually play out flawlessly, with no unplanned repercussions.
 
destrekor said:
Murphy's Law is not a statement suggesting absolutely everything that can or could have gone wrong, will or has gone wrong.
It's more a statement regarding luck of the draw and planning strategy - plan for all plans to go out the window, for shit to go wrong, and for your worst nightmare to possibly come true. 😉

Any strategists will fully accept Murphy's Law. It's not a guarantee - but it is rare for any detailed plan to actually play out flawlessly, with no unplanned repercussions.
Click to expand...

Ah, but that's a different statement entirely from the typical call on ML. See the wikipedia link in the OP. Can go wrong? It WILL go wrong. Your statement is more in the nature of the famous saying "the best plans of men often go astray," I'm paraphrasing it, I think it's partly Welsh or something.
 
dwell said:
Awesome band. Saw them in '87 at Irving Plaza with Underdog.

"Murphy's Law! ARF ARF ARF!"
Click to expand...

I played a song of theirs on my last radio show (KALX, Berkeley, 90.7 FM, and streaming), last Wednesday (3 days ago), the song "Crucial Barbecue." Yeah, Muse is my airname. Their awesomeness came through pretty well on that song. Kind of nutty name for a band, though. I suppose they were a really wild bunch, but fun!
 
Last edited:
Muse said:
Ah, but that's a different statement entirely from the typical call on ML. See the wikipedia link in the OP. Can go wrong? It WILL go wrong. Your statement is more in the nature of the famous saying "the best plans of men often go astray," I'm paraphrasing it, I think it's partly Welsh or something.
Click to expand...

Awry. Go awry. It's from Steinbeck's Mice and Men, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Steinbeck was paraphrasing Robert Burns (a Scot). Google tells me the original from Burns was, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley."

But, yeah, I completely agree with your exegesis of Murphy's Law, which is phrased, for humorous reasons, in the rhetorical excess that what can go wrond, WILL go wrong.

I agree with you that Burns/Steinbeck's take is more balanced and considered.

I also deeply understand that almost no one on OT gives a flying fark. 😛
 
Muse said:
Ah, but that's a different statement entirely from the typical call on ML. See the wikipedia link in the OP. Can go wrong? It WILL go wrong. Your statement is more in the nature of the famous saying "the best plans of men often go astray," I'm paraphrasing it, I think it's partly Welsh or something.
Click to expand...

As you also see in the wiki article (I admit, I did not click the link - though I have read the page at some point in the past), there's an element of "Chaos Theory" involved.
You can really say Murphy's Law is Chaos Theory humanized, or some such statement of similar nature.

Honestly, if you does not accept Chaos Theory - then I have no further comments to make that will sway your opinion.

A simplified Murphy's Law makes it sound as if anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, every single time. That's the problem with taking old concepts and turning them into "laws", as well as the issue of paraphrasing and limitations of language.
It's not a guarantee that something you see that can go "wrong" (a subjective statement, in any shape or form - somebody's wrong might be a "right" - think of war, a bad stroke of luck for you can be a positive turn of events for your enemy) - it's merely a summation that such "wrong," when given a similar set of circumstances, at some point will most likely occur.

Which is simply an element of Chaos Theory, focused in a way that pertains mainly to humans and our limited perception; Chaos Theory, in short, dictates that anything that can happen, will happen, given enough time and chance. The Butterfly Effect will also be involved, as a small random event can cause an unpredictable but possible event to occur a vast distance away, or in the same region a great length of time post-event.

That's going off the deep end, when speaking of Murphy's Law - but your argument revolves around a [too] literal interpretation.


I thought of that old adage, mainly as it pertains to military planning/strategy: both Murphy's Law and "throwing plans out the window when boots hit the ground" both come heavily into play.
 
Last edited:
destrekor said:
This too. It was never meant to be taken in a completely literal sense, but it definitely has truth to it. (see my post above this one)
Click to expand...

Indubitably. :thumbsup:

destrekor said:
As you also see in the wiki article (I admit, I did not click the link - though I have read the page at some point in the past), there's an element of "Chaos Theory" involved.
You can really say Murphy's Law is Chaos Theory humanized, or some such statement of similar nature.

Honestly, if you does not accept Chaos Theory - then I have no further comments to make that will sway your opinion.

A simplified Murphy's Law makes it sound as if anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, every single time. That's the problem with taking old concepts and turning them into "laws", as well as the issue of paraphrasing and limitations of language.
It's not a guarantee that something you see that can go "wrong" (a subjective statement, in any shape or form - somebody's wrong might be a "right" - think of war, a bad stroke of luck for you can be a positive turn of events for your enemy) - it's merely a summation that such "wrong," when given a similar set of circumstances, at some point will most likely occur.

Which is simply an element of Chaos Theory, focused in a way that pertains mainly to humans and our limited perception; Chaos Theory, in short, dictates that anything that can happen, will happen, given enough time and chance. The Butterfly Effect will also be involved, as a small random event can cause an unpredictable but possible event to occur a vast distance away, or in the same region a great length of time post-event.

That's going off the deep end, when speaking of Murphy's Law - but you're argument revolves around a [too] literal interpretation.


I thought of that old adage, mainly as it pertains to military planning/strategy: both Murphy's Law and "throwing plans out the window when boots hit the ground" both come heavily into play.
Click to expand...

Well put. Murphy's Law is phrased, grammaticaly, in the non-rigorous shorthand of colloquial humor. It's meant to be humorous.

Less humorously and more rigorously, it would be best expressed, "What can go wrong, will eventually go wrong, given an infinite time-frame."

^^^ But you'd never see this on a bumper sticker. 😀
 
Murphy's Law in the colloquial sense seems true because we notice way more stuff that goes wrong than what goes right. Indeed, "things going right" feels like nothing. All the time that life is just "happening", a great number of things are going "right". Something going "wrong" is usually the thing that brings all that to a screeching halt. We take great notice of those instances. In the end, all we remember are the things that went wrong, so it seems like things are going wrong all the time.
 
I translate it to mean "be prepared for the worst at all times and you'll never be caught with your boxers around your ankles".
 
Americans used to be pioneers. We were driven to be leaders, first in everything, even arrogant in success. Now, we are a nation of risk avoiders. The 'youts' of today live by Murphy's Law even without understanding it.
 
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top