MONDAY MUSE (8 June 2009)
MURPHY’S LAW
“If anything can go wrong, it will!" – Murphy’s Law
So often, when things go wrong, we use the crutches of what is popularly known
as Murphy’s Law to justify unanticipated failure. Thus we shift the onus of
responsibility from ourselves and condemn the fiasco to the vagaries of the
unknown. Some call it fate, some call it bad luck and others may find a better
word. But Murphy’s Law is really something else...
This modern theory is credited to Capt. Murphy, an engineer at Edwards Air
Force Base in 1949. One day, on finding a wrongly wired transducer, he cursed
the technician responsible by saying, "If there is any way to do it wrong,
he'll find it." The project manager added it to his list of "laws" and called
it Murphy's Law thus giving name to an ancient pessimism.
However, the articulation of the negative was put to positive use by the Air
Force. In fact, they went on to describe their good safety record as due to a
firm belief in Murphy's Law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it.
Aerospace manufacturers picked it up and used it widely in their ads during the
next few months, and soon it became part of modern metaphor.
Murphy’s Law is not about cynical logic about our perceived vulnerability. The
law’s effectiveness is in first envisioning the most remote of possibilities
for “things going wrong”, and taking remedial measures. While it is good to do
the right things; to BE BETTER we must be able to anticipate what can go wrong.
Doing so is termed risk analysis in planning parlance.
Murphy’s law inspires us to BE BETTER at the affirmative…
By the prediction and prevention of every possible negative!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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