MURPHY'S LAWS |
---|
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
Murphy's Law of Research: Enough research will tend to support your theory.
Murphy's Law of Copiers: The legibility of a copy is inversely proportional to its importance.
Murphy's Law of the Open Road: When there is a very long road upon which there is a one-way bridge placed at random, and there are only two cars on that road, it follows that: (1) the two cars are going in opposite directions, and (2) they will always meet at the bridge.
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics: Things get worse under pressure.
The Murphy Philosophy: Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Quantization Revision of Murphy's Laws: Everything goes wrong all at once.
Murphy's Constant: Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Rule of Accuracy: When working toward the solution of a problem, it always helps if you know the answer.
Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know there is a problem.
Acheson's Rule of the Bureaucracy: A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
Acton's Law: Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Ade's Law: Anybody can win -- unless there happens to be a second entry.
Airplane Law: When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.
Alan's Law of Research: The theory is supported as long as the funds are.
Albrecht's Law: Social innovations tend to the level of minimum tolerable well being.
* * * * *
MURPHY'S LAWS SENT BY MANY USERS
1.Nothing is as easy as it looks.
2.Everything takes longer than you think.
3.Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
4.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.
5.If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
6.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.
7.Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
8.If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously
overlooked something.
9.Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
10.Mother nature is a bitch.
11.It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are
so ingenious.
12.Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be
done first.
13.Every solution breeds new problems.
Murphy's Law of Research
Enough research will tend to support your theory.
Murphy's Law of Copiers
The legibility of a copy is inversely proportional to its
importance.
Murphy's Law of the Open Road:
When there is a very long road upon which there is a one-way
bridge placed at random, and there are only two cars on that road,
it follows that: (1) the two cars are going in opposite
directions, and (2) they will always meet at the bridge.
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.
The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Quantization Revision of Murphy's Laws
Everything goes wrong all at once.
Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Murphy's Corollaries
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so
ingenious
Law of the Perversity of Nature (Mrs. Murphy's Corollary):
You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the
bread to butter.
Corollary (Jenning):
The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is
directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
Commentaries
Hill's Commentaries on Murphy's Laws
1.If we lose much by having things go wrong, take all possible
care.
2.If we have nothing to lose by change, relax.
3.If we have everything to gain by change, relax.
4.If it doesn't matter, it does not matter.
O'Toole's Commentary
Murphy was an optimist.
NBC's Addendum to Murphy's Law
You never run out of things that can go wrong.
Murphy's Military Laws
1.Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are.
2.No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
3.Friendly fire ain't.
4.The most dangerous thing in the combat zone is an officer with
a map.
5.The problem with taking the easy way out is that the enemy has
already mined it.
6.The buddy system is essential to your survival; it gives the
enemy somebody else to shoot at.
7.The further you are in advance of your own positions, the more
likely your artillery will shoot short.
8.Incoming fire has the right of way.
9.If your advance is going well, you are walking into an ambush.
10.The quartermaster has only two sizes, too large and too small.
11.If you really need an officer in a hurry, take a nap.
12.The only time suppressive fire works is when it is used on
abandoned positions.
13.The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is
incoming friendly fire.
14.There is nothing more satisfying that having someone take a
shot at you, and miss.
15.Don't be conspicuous. In the combat zone, it draws fire. Out
of the combat zone, it draws sergeants.
16.If your sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.
Murphy's Technology Laws
1.You can never tell which way the train went by looking at
the track.
2.Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion
with confidence.
3.Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool
discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands
it beyond recognition.
4.Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not
understand.
5.If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs,
then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy
civilization.
6.The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with
the fundamental solvency of the firm.
7.The attention span of a computer is only as long as it
electrical cord.
8.An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less
until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
9.Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll
believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have
to touch to be sure.
10.All great discoveries are made by mistake.
11.Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.
12.Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
13.All's well that ends.
14.A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the
hours are lost.
15.The first myth of management is that it exists.
16.A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final
inspection.
17.New systems generate new problems.
18.To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a
computer.
19.We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
20.Any given program, when running, is obsolete.
21.Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic.
22. A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men
working 20 years make.
23.Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in
an honest day's work.
24.Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know
who wrote the book or even what book.
25.The primary function of the design engineer is to make things
difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.
26.To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will
take the longest and cost the most.
27.After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than
done.
28.Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is
obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which
are still under development.
29.A complex system that works is invariably found to have
evolved from a simple system that works.
30.If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try
multiplying by the page number.
31.Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.
Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
32.Give all orders verbally. Never write anything down that might
go into a "Pearl Harbor File."
33.Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure,
temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism
will do as it damn well pleases.
34.If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious.
35.The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds
that the competition already has the order.
36.In designing any type of construction, no overall dimension
can be totalled correctly after 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The correct
total will become self-evident at 8:15 a.m. on Monday.
37.Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it
itches.
38.All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.
39.The only perfect science is hind-sight.
40.Work smarder and not harder and be careful of yor speling.
41.If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist.
42.If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
43.When all else fails, read the instructions.
44.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.
45.Everything that goes up must come down.
46.Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least
accessible corner.
47.Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.
48.Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will
want to use it.
49.The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional
to the level of management.
Murphy's Love Laws
1.All the good ones are taken.
2.If the person isn't taken, there's a reason. (corr. to 1)
3.The nicer someone is, the farther away (s)he is from you.
4.Brains x Beauty x Availability = Constant.
5.The amount of love someone feels for you is inversely
proportional to how much you love them.
6.Money can't buy love, but it sure gets you a great bargaining
position.
7.The best things in the world are free --- and worth every penny
of it.
8.Every kind action has a not-so-kind reaction.
9.Nice guys(girls) finish last.
10.If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
11.Availability is a function of time. The minute you get
interested is the minute they find someone else.
Murphy's Laws of sex
1.The more beautiful the woman is who loves you, the easier it
is to leave her with no hard feelings.
2.Nothing improves with age.
3.No matter how many times you've had it, if it's offered take it,
because it'll never be quite the same again.
4.Sex has no calories.
5.Sex takes up the least amount of time and causes the most
amount of trouble.
6.There is no remedy for sex but more sex.
7.Sex appeal is 50% what you've got and 50% what people think you've
got.
8.No sex with anyone in the same office.
9.Sex is like snow; you never know how many inches you are going
to get or how long it is going to last.
10.A man in the house is worth two in the street.
11.If you get them by the balls, their hearts and minds will
follow.
12.Virginity can be cured.
13.When a man's wife learns to understand him, she usually stops
listening to him.
14.Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.
15.The qualities that most attract a woman to a man are usually
the same ones she can't stand years later.
16.Sex is dirty only if it's done right.
17.It is always the wrong time of month.
18.The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
19.When the lights are out, all women are beautiful.
20.Sex is hereditary. If your parents never had it, chances are
you won't either.
21.Sow your wild oats on Saturday night -- Then on Sunday pray
for crop failure.
22.The younger the better.
23.The game of love is never called off on account of darkness.
24.It was not the apple on the tree but the pair on the ground
that caused the trouble in the garden.
25.Sex discriminates against the shy and the ugly.
26.Before you find your handsome prince, you've got to kiss a lot
of frogs.
27.There may be some things better than sex, and some things
worse than sex. But there is nothing exactly like it.
28.Love your neighbor, but don't get caught.
29.Love is a hole in the heart.
30.If the effort that went in research on the female bosom had
gone into our space program, we would now be running hot-dog
stands on the moon.
31.Love is a matter of chemistry, sex is a matter of physics.
32.Do it only with the best.
33.Sex is a three-letter word which needs some old-fashioned four-letter
words to convey its full meaning.
34.One good turn gets most of the blankets.
35.You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine
women.
36.Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
37.It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all.
38.Thou shalt not commit adultery.....unless in the mood.
39.Never lie down with a woman who's got more troubles than you.
40.Abstain from wine, women, and song; mostly song.
41.Never argue with a women when she's tired -- or rested.
42.A woman never forgets the men she could have had; a man, the
women he couldn't.
43.What matters is not the length of the wand, but the magic in
the stick.
44.It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
45.Never say no.
46.A man can be happy with any woman as long as he doesn't love
her.
47.Folks playing leapfrog must complete all jumps.
48.Beauty is skin deep; ugly goes right to the bone.
49.Never stand between a fire hydrant and a dog.
50.A man is only a man, but a good bicycle is a ride.
51.Love comes in spurts.
52.The world does not revolve on an axis.
53.Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation; the other
eight are unimportant.
54.Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
55.Don't do it if you can't keep it up.
56.There is no difference between a wise man and a fool when they
fall in love.
57.Never go to bed mad, stay up and fight.
58.Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
59."This won't hurt, I promise."