Have you ever been driving when the cars in your lane come to a complete stop, but the neighboring lane of cars continues to move? So, you merge into the moving lane, and what happens? It comes to a stop and the lane you left begins to move.

When things like this happen, many people will blame Murphy’s Law. Recently, I asked myself: Who is Murphy?

The Man

Believe it or not, Murphy was a real person. Edward J. Murphy, Jr., was a U.S. Air Force Major in the 1940s. As an engineer, he helped develop new theories and equipment, all of which had to be tested. For one test in 1949, Murphy brought sensors to provide more accurate readings for determining how many Gs (the force of gravity) a man could withstand. Unfortunately, the sensors had been incorrectly connected and provided no data. (This was only discovered after the test was concluded.)

Murphy grumbled about the tech responsible for the sensors. He said something like, if there were two ways to do something and one of them would result in disaster, of course, the disastrous one was the way the tech would do it. Everyone around him understood. No matter the preparation, things went wrong.

Later, at a press conference, Colonel John Paul Stapp, the Air Force career physician who’d been the G forces testing volunteer, mentioned their team’s good safety record was because of their awareness of Murphy’s Law, or whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Calling it Murphy’s Law may have been said in jest, but it stuck.

Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law isn’t a real law. It doesn’t prove or explain anything. In fact, it doesn’t even refer to one law. Murphy had many laws in many different categories.  Here are the first five of Murphy’s general laws:

• Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
• Nothing is as easy as it looks.
• Everything takes longer than you think it will.
• If several things can go wrong, the worst one will be the one to go wrong.
• If nothing can go wrong, something will still go wrong.

Here are a few of Murphy’s laws from the Military, Technology, and Love categories.

• The problem with taking the easy way out is that the enemy has already mined it.
• The buddy system is essential to your survival; it gives the enemy somebody else to shoot at.
• Incoming fire has the right of way.
• There is nothing more satisfying than having someone take a shot at you and miss.
• The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.
• All great discoveries are made by mistake.
• Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
• When all else fails, read the instructions.
• All the good ones are taken.
• If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Availability is a function of time. The minute you get interested is the minute they find someone else.

Think Positive

It appears good ol’ Murphy constantly saw the worst of a situation. According to him, you should always expect things to go wrong, regardless of your planning. While this seems negative, using Murphy’s Law can be a positive act that helps you take control. Think about all the things that can go wrong—especially the really crazy extremes—and how you might handle them. Then, when something—not so crazy, but that you haven’t thought of—happens, maybe you’ll be able to see a solution more easily. (Click here to read an interesting example.)

So, next time consider your situation from every angle and do your best to be prepared for anything. Murphy’s Law doesn’t affect every situation, but if it affects yours, you’ll be ready.

DYK Richard Zeckhauser came up with the opposite of Murphy’s Law?  It’s called Yhprum’s Law. (Yhprum is Murphy spelled backwards.) His law states “everything that can work, will work.”