Murphy’s Law: Origin and Definition

Murphy’s law goes to American engineer Edward A. Murphy jr. back. In 1949, Captain Murphy participated in a U.S. Air Force research program. A complex experiment was carried out to investigate which accelerations the human body can endure. For this purpose, 16 measuring sensors were attached to a test person. Unfortunately, the experiment failed because a scientist incorrectly connected ALL sensors.

From this experience, Murphy formulated the law:

If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.

If there are several ways to do a task, and one of them ends in disaster or otherwise has undesirable consequences, someone will do the same.

This shortened the well-known law:

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Over the years, this “law” has developed a scientific and philosophical basis. At this point, however, we don’t want to go that deep. Let’s look at how Murphy’s law can look in practice.

Examples of Murphy’s Law

In addition to the example mentioned in the introduction, there are countless applications of Murphy’s Law that you can encounter in your everyday life. For better understanding, I have constructed three practical application examples:

Example 1: Exam

Let’s say you are on an important exam day. Shortly before you leave the house and want to go to the exam, your landlady rings the doorbell. There is a broken pipe and you have to wait for the artisans to be there. After the damage has been done and the first catastrophe averted, you hurry off. Fortunately, you have planned a little more time, but unfortunately your train is 20 minutes late. Once at the destination stop, it starts to rain. You start running. You slip, fall down and punch yourself in your smartphone. Completely rushed and drenched, you reach the exam location. Your examiner gripes at you for being two minutes late. You also forgot your calculator.

Example 2: Presentation

Suppose you have to give an important presentation in a few minutes. You organized a coffee to fortify yourself, but when you drink you spill your white top full. Trying to remove the stain ends up quintupling the brown area. After you have convinced yourself that it cannot be changed and nobody will notice it, you will find that you have forgotten your presenter at home. You open your PowerPoint presentation and notice that some symbols are not displayed correctly. In addition, the battery level of your laptop is low and you can not find your charging cable.

Example 3: Submission

Imagine you have to hand in your student research today. As you review your work one last time, you notice that the page numbers and the margin have shifted. Rear table you are looking for the cause of the error. You unconsciously click on a graphic, which places it over the text – your layout is over. Fortunately, you still have an old version that can be presented with few corrections. However, the bibliography no longer seems to fit. After this obstacle has also been removed, you start a print job. Out of paper. You add paper. No more blue ink. You replace the print cartridge. Now your printer reacts – only unfortunately your student work does not appear on both sides of the filing, but on one side.

5 ways to deal with Murphy’s law

Almost everyone has had their own experience with Murphy’s law. Still, some people seem to cope better with negative events than others. So that you can also deal with small (and large) series of accidents more relaxed, I now have a few useful tips for you.

1. Radical acceptance

Murphy’s law is not based on a negative state of mind or a destructive worldview. It is rather statistics. That means: If there is a possibility that everything you tackle can go wrong, then at some point it will go wrong. You just have to wait long enough. It’s like rolling dice. If you speculate on a six, you only have to throw the dice often enough – at some point this number will be in front of you.

It is the same in “real life”. If you’re in the middle of a losing streak, mercilessly breaking Murphy’s law, and pulling rivets after another, it won’t help you to feel sorry for yourself. Accept the statistics. Even if it is hard. It’s not necessarily up to you that things are not going well at the moment; it is not personal. Once you accept that, your situation will feel much better.

2. Consider probabilities

Speaking of statistics, when the series of misfortunes continues, it is comforting to take a look at the probabilities. Why? Because probability calculation is mathematics. And no matter what you can have against math, one thing is not: unjust. Mathematics is neutral. It has nothing against you, it just exists. After a bad day, this can strengthen your back.

This can be demonstrated well with the example of Captain Murphy. In the above experiment, 16 sensors were misplaced. What do you think is the likelihood of this happening? According to my calculation, a little under 0.002 percent – very low, but not zero. Of course, this does not save the lost attempt, but only awareness of how likely (or unlikely) such events can be will correct our image of reality.

3. Recognize selective perception

Murphy’s law is often so strong because our perception is distorted. We perceive negative manifestations, mishaps or probabilities that are to our disadvantage more clearly than positive events. For most people, it is normal that things go well. It goes without saying that the computer works or the Word document does what it is supposed to do. But these circumstances are not so obvious.

Added to this is our selective memory: we remember less (or not at all) things that went “normally”. Peculiarities such as mishaps, catastrophes or sudden crises remain in our memory much sooner than the events that took place smoothly. As soon as you realize this distortion of your perception, Murphy’s law loses its terror.

4. Plan dynamically

Murphy’s law can ruin the best plan and drive the most organized people crazy. According to the famous quote by Friedrich Dürrenmatt:

The more planned people go, the more effectively chance can hit them.

That may be true, but with a somewhat unfavorable probability, you don’t have to be thwarted by your plans. I deliberately write “plans” and not “plan” because: If you face major challenges with just one plan, you have almost no chance anyway. Life is far too wild to reach your goal with just one option. You need several.

Dynamic planning is the order of the day. That means: If your first plan doesn’t work or is torpedoed by the unexpected, you have to dodge and improvise. Change your plan. Make a plan B and a plan C. If that doesn’t work, go to plan D and plan E. It doesn’t matter how many plans destroy Murphy’s law – in the end you always have one option in your pocket. Dynamic planning is your most powerful antidote. As former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it:

Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.

5. Prepare worst case scenario

Of course, it can be helpful to develop one or more plans for each situation. But you often lack the time for extensive planning processes in everyday life. If you’re like most people, you have a clearer picture of important challenges and significant events (like an exam or a presentation), but much of these activities are unplanned.

So that small problems don’t get you out of balance or even a negative spiral according to Murphy’s law starts, it is advisable to prepare a worst-case scenario for important events. You create a plan of action and determine what to do in the worst case. First ask yourself: What could go wrong? What difficulties could I face? Think completely pessimistic and draw a dark picture of your future.

After that, however, you do not remain in this state, but collect possible answers to these obstacles. How can you solve the identified problems? How can you achieve a successful result despite everything? What precautions can you take to prevent a disaster? Working with worst-case scenarios gives you security and can ensure that you go through life with a great deal of foresight and are less easy to get under.

Conclusion

Some days, Murphy’s law looks terrifyingly real. Because there are phases in which everything that can go wrong really goes wrong. Fortunately, such sections are rare – and finite. Our distorted view of the world often helps us to perceive things around us much more negatively than they really are.

If you are currently or in the future in a losing streak, you can take countermeasures from above. Take a deep breath, raise your head and regain control. In the end, Murphy’s Law is a mathematical reality, but that doesn’t mean that you have to allow this rule to have an excessive impact on life.

If you consciously remember what has been going well in your life and what you have already achieved – despite all the adversity – a feeling of gratitude will arise. You may not be able to hide all negative aspects, but you don’t have to. Most of the time, just a little ray of hope is enough to leave bad days behind and start all over again tomorrow.