Murphy’s law is typically stated as:
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
It is often extended to:
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”
The modern version of Murphy’s Law has its roots in U.S. Air Force studies performed in 1949 on the effects of rapid deceleration on pilots.
Murphy’s Laws – a growing list
- Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
- Nothing is as easy as it looks.
- Everything takes longer than you think it will.
- 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. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
- If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
- If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
- Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
- If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
- Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
- Mother nature is a bitch.
- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
- Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
- Every solution breeds new problems.
- If anything can’t go wrong on its own, someone will make it go wrong.
Murphy was an optimist
“It’s supposed to be, ‘If it can happen, it will,’” a former U.S. Air Force engineer said. “Not ‘Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.’” In a radio interview in the early 1980s, Murphy insisted he had in fact meant it in the former, more motivating sense.
Murphy’s Law is a conservative and suspicious (or hopeful and optimistic) way of looking at a problem.