WEBVTT - How Murphy's Law Works

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from How Stuff Works dot Com? Brought to you by

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<v Speaker 1>Consumer Guide Automotive We make Garbine Easier. I am welcome

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<v Speaker 1>to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here

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<v Speaker 1>at how Stuff Works dot Com, and with me, as

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<v Speaker 1>always is my trustee Edit Tricks, Candice Gibson. How's it going, Candice? Okay, Josh,

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<v Speaker 1>it's going okay. Oh yeah, you're a little down in

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<v Speaker 1>the mouth. I am. Yeah, just everything today, it's just

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<v Speaker 1>it's not going to way I planned. Well, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I know exactly what you're talking about. You you kind

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<v Speaker 1>of have the feeling that the entire universe is against you,

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<v Speaker 1>being kicked around a little bit by the powers that beat. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>what you're talking about is Murphy's Law. You know about this?

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<v Speaker 1>I do. I do. Murphy's Law. It says that anything

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<v Speaker 1>that can go wrong. Well, yeah, and you know where

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<v Speaker 1>it came from. I do. Actually, Um, it all originated

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<v Speaker 1>back in nine so this is an ancient history. This

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<v Speaker 1>is pretty recent and essentially the Air Force was doing

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of tests on g forces and trying to

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<v Speaker 1>figure out how much a human being could handle. And

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<v Speaker 1>what it all boiled down to was some people who

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<v Speaker 1>worked for a Captain Edward A. Murphy weren't really doing

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<v Speaker 1>their jobs exactly right. They were messing up the little things.

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<v Speaker 1>And he said, pretty exasperated, there are two ways to

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<v Speaker 1>do something. They're always going to pick the one that

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<v Speaker 1>results in catastrophe. But it's kind of a mouthful, and

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<v Speaker 1>yet it really is. And so um Colonel John Paul

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<v Speaker 1>stepped later on exactly he was sort of being the

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<v Speaker 1>mouthpiece with these experiments that they were doing, and he

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<v Speaker 1>essentially said that, you know, well, the experiments aren't going

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<v Speaker 1>exactly as planned. It's all, you know, following Murphy's law, Well,

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<v Speaker 1>what's that? And he explained that anything that can go

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<v Speaker 1>wrong will so he started silver tune it. Well, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of a lot of confusion. A lot

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<v Speaker 1>of people slept Murphy's Law into just about anything that

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<v Speaker 1>goes wrong, right, But there's actually a lot of corollary

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<v Speaker 1>laws that have come about. Some of them are even

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<v Speaker 1>older than Murphy's Law, which, by the way, Murphy's Law

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<v Speaker 1>is a take off on Sod's law. You heard of

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<v Speaker 1>that it's an old English saying that any bad thing

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<v Speaker 1>that can happen to some poor side will So it's

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<v Speaker 1>pretty much the English version, and in England they still

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<v Speaker 1>call it Sod's law. But there's plenty of corollary laws

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<v Speaker 1>to Murphy's raw law that whatever can go wrong will

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<v Speaker 1>go wrong. Uh Like, take a tours observation. You ever

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<v Speaker 1>been in traffic and the other lane always moves faster? Exactly?

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<v Speaker 1>That's any tours observation. But actually that's kind of based

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<v Speaker 1>on a little bit of psychology. You know that. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's true. You ready, okay, So so you're standing in

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<v Speaker 1>traffic and either side of you, both lanes are moving,

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<v Speaker 1>and you're standing stock still. Of course you're gonna notice

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<v Speaker 1>you're in traffic. You want to get home, but your

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<v Speaker 1>lane starts moving again. You're paying attention to the car

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<v Speaker 1>in front of you, and behind you, you're no longer

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<v Speaker 1>paying to the paying attention to the lanes on either side,

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<v Speaker 1>so they're most likely stopped or at least going slower

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<v Speaker 1>than you are. You never noticed. The only time we

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<v Speaker 1>notice something is when it's not going our way. So

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<v Speaker 1>are you saying that we want to feel victimized by

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<v Speaker 1>the universe. I don't know that we want to feel

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<v Speaker 1>victimized so much, but I think we have a sense

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<v Speaker 1>of fatalism. You know that we're all kind of powerless

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<v Speaker 1>at the hands of faith. We're not actively making our

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<v Speaker 1>own choices. It depends, you know. I think that there's

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<v Speaker 1>a whole mindset surrounding Murphy's law that that people adopt

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<v Speaker 1>that you know, everything goes wrong, and that's when they

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<v Speaker 1>pay the most attention. I use an example in the article, like,

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<v Speaker 1>so you're walking along and you make it to the

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<v Speaker 1>place you're trying to get to, uh, and you have

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<v Speaker 1>no problems. You don't stop and think, wow, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I really am a good walker. But if on the

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<v Speaker 1>way you stop and or you fall in skin your knee,

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<v Speaker 1>you're gonna sit there and see, why does this happen

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<v Speaker 1>to me? That's the thing you pay attention to. We

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<v Speaker 1>humans are almost programmed to pay attention to all the

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<v Speaker 1>terrible things that can happen to us and ignore all

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<v Speaker 1>the great things. Ah. It's sort of a whiny attitude.

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<v Speaker 1>If you were a little bit more careful, or maybe

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<v Speaker 1>even a little bit more optimistic, you can avoid Murphy's law.

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know that that's entirely true. I think that

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<v Speaker 1>the key is optimism. And I know you're not much

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<v Speaker 1>on fate, right, not so much. Well, I I kind

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<v Speaker 1>of tend to believe in Murphy's law just because I'm

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<v Speaker 1>you know, clinically paranoid. But you know there's a certain

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<v Speaker 1>amount of science to Murphy's law. Did you know that

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<v Speaker 1>I did. We're talking about Pell's equation, right, Yes, Pell's

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<v Speaker 1>Pell's equation of Murphy. Well, no, it's Joel Pell's Murphy's equation. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And Joel Pell's this guy out of the University of

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<v Speaker 1>British Columbia, and he basically quantified Murphy's law. He took

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<v Speaker 1>all these factors like um that surrounding event, like how

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<v Speaker 1>badly you want it to happen in a certain way,

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<v Speaker 1>or the complexity of the system involves, or the urgency

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<v Speaker 1>of it going a certain way, and he plugged him

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<v Speaker 1>into an equation and he used his eighty nine ter

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<v Speaker 1>cell as an example. You know about that. That's a toyota, Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>it is in toyota and eighty nine one at that.

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<v Speaker 1>But Pell calculated the probability of his nine toyota Chursell's

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<v Speaker 1>clutch going out in a rain storm when he was

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<v Speaker 1>sixty miles from home, and he came up with a

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<v Speaker 1>factor of one, which means it would definitely happen. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, Josh, that could actually be attributed to the

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<v Speaker 1>fact that Toya no longer makes it yourself, So who

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<v Speaker 1>knows how sturdy and automobile it wasn't the first place?

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<v Speaker 1>That is it is a good argument. Or it could

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<v Speaker 1>mean that Murphy's Law is real and we should all

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<v Speaker 1>fear it. Uh. If you do fear Murphy's Law and

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<v Speaker 1>want to know your enemy, go read how Murphy's Law

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<v Speaker 1>works on how stuff works dot com for moral this

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<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff works

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