How to prove Murphy wrong

Tim Wescott wrote in news:p9SdnQsoytQ_gkranZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@web-ster.com:

"I have met the Enemy, and he is me."

--Damon

My favorite is, "Murphy was an optimist"!

...Jim Thompson

My personal corollary to Murphy's law is that the only two real infinities in the universe are stupidity and optimism.

The most important is, "Don't touch Mrs. Murphy".

Like having your computer's clock off by a day?

I've often heard this as the "buttered-side-down bread law", which of course refers to which side lands first when you're not quite awake enough to make breakfast....

Then there's the one about re-canning worms. (Hint: The only way is to use a larger can!)

But my all time favorite "law" is: (..and I believe there is a lot of truth to this..) Left unchecked, things tend to go from bad to worse. Then the cycle repeats.

Its very simple. Its wrong cause no one counts every time it fails. How many times has things gone right when they could have gone wrong? Do people take notice of that?

Murphy's law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. "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." It is most often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way" or, "Anything that can go wrong, will," or "If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment"). The saying is sometimes referred to as Sod's law or Finagle's law which can also be rendered as "Anything that can go wrong, will-at the worst possible moment".

First attempt; If something is supposed to go wrong this law seems to contradict on this as well so succes is assured?! Then why not attempt nothing else that is doomed to fail on instance having great expectations insured

Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap".

How can it possibly fail. How can you know that the worst possible moment for failure has happened?

Notice that? They positively rely on it.

Murphy's law does not say everything will always go wrong. It says that if it is possible for something to go wrong, it

Past successes do not guarantee future success. Ask anyone who has been investing in the stock market for a few years.

You have no clue?

If you have ever did any task where there was a posibility for things to go wrong, did they?

If you think a little and read that page you'll see I'm right. There are many occasions when things don't go wrong when they could have but no one notices cause its not a big deal.

On that page it gives an example

"There is a possible reasoning behind Murphy's Law as well. For example, on the hottest day of the year, the air conditioner breaks down. This is because that moment is when the most strain is put on it, which is the reason for it breaking down."

But how many times did the AC not break down? No one counts cause its not an issue until it does... and when it does its a big deal.

Or what constitutes failure- the steps taken to identify possible failure modes, thus preventing total foul up due to Murphy's law, make the project years late/ massively over budget/ elephantinely clunky and hence unmarketable- thus proving Murphy's law.

But do you know who Sturgeon is?

Sure - science fiction writer. I have read a bit of his stuff.

Here is the wiki page about him:

An interesting factoid (which I had heard of but forgotten), is that he was in the room when L Ron Hubbard essentially made up scientology.

So which parts of his writing do you like best?