If you’ve ever had an important presentation go awry, your printer run out of ink in the middle of printing a document, or your company laptop break on the same day that it’s due to be reviewed by your supervisor, then you’ve experienced Murphy’s Law in action. It was named after an engineer at NASA in the 1960s. He noticed that things seemed to go wrong more often than they went right. Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time and in the worst possible way.
Defining Murphy’s Law
A law that states anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Some have extended Murphy’s Law to state If something can’t go wrong, it will anyway. When applied to technology, it often means that in spite of attempts to prevent errors or defects. Things still end up breaking down. This was first used by Edmond C. Murphy (later Rear Admiral USN), an engineer working for a Bell Labs team trying to develop a gyroscope for use in flight stabilizers. While developing one version of an autopilot system he was asked how soon he could make changes to another part of the system. So it would communicate with his gyroscope.
Example
For example, if there are two people on earth. They want to get married and one of them isn’t you, your fiancé will always be in love with them. Another example: If you try to leave a bad situation and it won’t let you (e.g., you have unpaid bills or debt). It will force you back into that same situation even harder. The idea behind Murphy’s law lies in its definition; if something can go wrong at any given time then it eventually will.
History
Mr. Murphy did not coin his own law. Instead, it came from an aerospace engineer named Edward A. Murphy who worked for NASA in 1949. His design team was working on a rocket that would run off of fuels stored at high pressures. When something went wrong during one of their tests. The fuel exploded and destroyed much of their lab, as well as putting them behind schedule in their project. He later tried to make light of his misfortune by saying. If there are two or more ways to do something and one way will result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way. And thus, we have what is now known as Murphy’s Law.
Fatalism and the Appeal of Murphy’s Law
For a phrase created to describe a manufacturing defect, Murphy’s law has an appealing ring of fatalism. Today, it serves as an idiom for when things go wrong and describes a universal tendency towards pessimism. That said, we shouldn’t be too quick to condemn individuals who talk about Murphy’s law: In fact, some research suggests that fatalism can be good for you.
A 2010 study from Texas Tech University found that college students who were encouraged to embrace fatalistic beliefs reported less stress and anxiety about exams than those who were taught to expect more control over their outcomes. The students who exhibited fatalistic views also had higher GPAs than their peers. When doomsday comes, maybe thinking like a pessimist is not such a bad thing after all… or so says Murphy’s law.
Preventing Murphy’s law
Some may be surprised that anyone would bother to prevent a law that supposedly doesn’t exist, but it seems there are at least two reasons why we might do so. Firstly, if Murphy’s law really did exist then we could save a lot of effort and avoid the hassle by ensuring certain things never happen. For example, if we applied some common sense and realized that computers are bound to fail sometimes (i.e., anything created by humans will break down), then surely it would make sense to ensure they don’t take important data with them when they crash? Secondly, Murphy’s law can be interpreted in many different ways.
Yhprum’s law
Instead of everything that can go wrong will go wrong, Yhprum’s law is Everything that can work, will work. Yhprum’s law is a more optimistic version of Murphy’s Law. It means that any given situation is bound to be resolved without excessive difficulty. In reality, though, Yhprum’s law can sometimes do more harm than good. Its mere mention may make individuals lazy, leading them to believe that everything will eventually work out as planned, even if they neglect to complete necessary preparations and precautions before taking action in pursuit of a goal.
Is Murphy’s law negative?
No, it isn’t. What is called Murphy’s law or Sod’s law or Finagle’s law is a humorous way of expressing what happens in real life with how things go wrong for reasons out of our control, no matter how well we plan or how hard we try. A simple version goes like whatever can go wrong will go wrong. It says something about human nature that humans can find humor in random acts of misfortune. So maybe you’re not laughing now if something bad has just happened but it might make you smile to know that there are a lot of others who have experienced similar things and may have even come up with clever ways to describe them as early as 1902.
Importance
The importance of knowing what murphy’s law is can be illustrated in numerous scenarios. For example, if you are working at a restaurant and a customer comes in with a complaint, how will you address it without invoking murphy’s law? You have to know what it is or else you will have no idea how to respond. Do not get caught up not knowing something so simple. It could end up costing you your job! Understanding the concept of murphy’s law will help ensure that does not happen!
Is Murphy’s law a theory?
Yes, Murphy’s law was conceived of as a theory by an American engineer and physicist, Edward A. Murphy Jr. He stated that If there are two or more ways to do something, one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, someone will do it. Or as he worded it even more bluntly: If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it. He also suggested that Murphy’s Laws should never be violated. Therefore, every violation of the law would result in disaster and every violation must be accounted for when making plans.
How do you beat Murphy’s law?
First of all, you should never try to fight against Murphy’s law. The best thing that you can do when it comes to it is to accept that sometimes, something will go wrong with your project and you should be ready for it. For example, in case of a sudden power outage or an unavoidable accident. Luckily, there are different things that can help you deal with such situations and make your life easier than if everything went according to plan from beginning till end.
Final verdict:
If something can go wrong, it will. And if anything even remotely bad can happen, it probably will. If you’re an entrepreneur and things seem to be going smoothly, consider yourself lucky. Make sure you count your blessings and look for some good fortune—because it could be on its way. Murphy’s law dictates that any success an entrepreneur achieves along their journey of self-employment or venture creation is destined to either come with a major setback or end completely because of some unforeseeable event.
Successful entrepreneurs are those who can take these setbacks in stride and continue pushing forward toward their vision for success with a positive attitude and level head. Sometimes it takes a disaster before real success becomes apparent; think about Steve Jobs as an example of such a case!
