Digital Streets

Everyone has heard of Murphy’s Law. There are different versions that float about, but the point of it is that if anything can go wrong, it will.  However I find this to be an incomplete perception of the true occurrences that demonstrate Murphy’s Law.  It would be more accurate to state that something will go wrong a certain percentage of the time that the task is performed.  This variable percentage increases in direct proportion to the importance of the task itself.  One of minimal importance would have a relatively low percentage of failure while a critical task would have a much, much higher percentage of failure due to something going horribly wrong.

Additionally, there are phrases that I refer to as Accelerants.  Accelerants are to Murphy’s Law what gasoline is to fire.  When one states one of these phrases, they change that varying percentage mentioned above to a fixed percentage - 100%.  Think of them as a magical spell for disaster.  We have all performed these, examples are: “I am going to put this where I won’t lose it”, “What could possibly go wrong?”, “That could never happen to me”, and “We’ve got plenty of time”.  Accelerants should be avoided at all costs.  This is a difficult proposal since humans seem almost drawn to speak Accelerants into action.

Another characteristic I have noticed about Murphy’s Law is that it rarely shows up when expected.  If you are expecting disaster, it usually doesn’t happen.  You can’t go through life with the attitude that everything is going to go wrong, then Murphy’s Law has defeated you without even lifting a finger.  Instead, you should be mindful of what you do and have preparations in place for disasters that might come your way.  By doing this and avoiding the Accelerants, you will minimize both the frequency of occurrence and also the damage done when things go wrong.