Magical Murphy's Law? You may have just heard the explanation, not the connotation

It's unclear when the term Murphy's Law started to appear more and more frequently. Everyone chatting casually, there is a good chance of contacting Murphy's Law. So, what does Murphy's Law mean? Do you really understand Murphy's Law? What kind of life wisdom does it imply?

historical time origin

In fact, when Murphy's Law is clearly stated, it is not for better reasoning or scientific research, it is just a joke.

In 1949, an aviation lieutenant technical engineer named Edward Allison, on a new project, said to his little assistant: "As long as one thing can be wrong, he has no doubts. Gotta get this wrong!"

As a result, the term quickly caught on among the elite team of the new project, calling it "Murphy's Law." Subsequently, Murphy's Law spread far and wide. So that when Allison himself accepted the interview decades later, he could not remember what his original sentence was at that time. However, this basic law has been continuously developed in various versions or ways.

Derivative meaning

Even Allison himself has forgotten what he said at the time, so all the versions that are in fashion today are probably the original sentence, and it is unlikely that it is the original sentence. Therefore, this version can be regarded as a derivative version.

Whether it is the original sentence or the derived version, at least for everyone, it has the same practical meaning, so everyone does not need to worry too much. Regardless of black and white cats, what can make us suck is a good cat.

Version 1: If there is a good chance that something will be affected, no matter how small the probability, it will be affected.

Version 2: If you worry about a certain situation, it is more likely to happen.

Version 3: If there are two choices, one of which will lead to a less favorable outcome, some people must make that choice.

In fact, Murphy's Law is often fashionable, and most people can't help but sigh and say it in their hearts. In daily life, everyone basically has a practical experience, as if Murphy's Law is indeed so accurate. So, why is Murphy's Law accurate? In fact, if you analyze it rationally, you will find out its accuracy, and there is actually a reason.

Why does Murphy's Law apply?

>The principle of scientific research

> In some cases, Murphy's Law is very accurate, in fact, there is an essential scientific rationale. The most well-known example is butter toast.

The example of the buttered toast is this: Suppose you have a piece of toast in your hand and butter is spread on one side. At this time, you accidentally knocked off the toast, so it must be the butter side down.

Touching the ground on the side with butter is definitely not a good result. I don't care if the toast is gone, but when the butter touches the ground, it takes a lot of time to wipe the ground. It seems that it is in line with Murphy's Law, and things are indeed trending in a not-so-good direction.

But the problem depends: the relative density of butter is greater than that of toast! When the sliced ​​bread falls, because the center of mass is biased towards the butter side, of course, the butter side has a higher force and will fall quickly, and finally it will mainly hit the ground with the butter side. Also, if the sliced ​​bread is missing, it usually doesn't land flat, just flipping over because you didn't hold it or for other reasons. While it's still in your hand, of course the butter side is up, so as soon as you spin it down, the butter side is down.

If you don't believe me, try it, squat down and hold a sliced ​​bread with butter on it, then the door handle sucks it away, I don't believe it or the butter side is down.

> Theorem of Large Numbers

>The theorem of large numbers is basically the content of high numbers, but it is also well understood by ordinary people. In short, a certain probability will occur when the frequency of repetition of things is sufficient. For example, in the roulette-themed activities of some mobile games, the chance of a big prize is extremely low, but if you walk around the table frequently enough, you will undoubtedly win at least one big prize.

In the same way, Murphy's Law is often accurate, and in fact a part of it depends on this.

For example, if you have been eating melons, it is possible to eat a stink. If you eat the first sunflower seed, you may not eat it, and neither will the second one, but if you keep eating it, sooner or later you will eat stinky things, and then you have to say: "How can I always eat stinky things? ?"

In other words, when you drive to work, you will always see the lights on, lane-changing, and signal lights that don’t work for a long time when you walk on the road... Often at this time, most drivers will mutter: "How? Met this idiot again!"

In fact, this is just the result of repeated events with the same probability. As mentioned above about eating melons, if you only eat five of them, it is very likely that you will not be able to eat sunflower seeds at all, because the proportion of stinky seeds is actually very low. In other words, the fools you encounter while driving are actually a certain number of fools in the world, but the probability of encountering them is not too great. But if you drive out every day, sooner or later you will encounter it, which is all normal.

> what to be afraid of

> Actually, this reason is very similar to the one above.

For example, there is a fool in your company, who often makes you unhappy, and always curses in his heart: "It's just mental retardation, why do you always encounter mental retardation!"

Have you ever thought that your business is likely to have 50 people, and one of them is a fool. Well, not only did you meet this fool, but the other 48s also met. It's just that you pay too much attention to this matter, so you only consider yourself.

As in the case of driving before, in fact, people on the street have encountered such a driver who drives indiscriminately, but because he created your plan, your experience is especially obvious.

Eating melons is the same, but this time it is compared with yourself. If you eat good sunflower seeds, you may not pay attention at all, just keep eating. However, once you eat stinky, you will have a distinct experience, boosting this data signal in your human brain, so you will feel like eating stinky all the time.

Here is a detailed introduction to another basic theory: the more afraid of search engine spiders, the easier it is to see search engine spiders. In fact, it is a bit similar to the general principle, but also different. The reason for this is that the more you worry about search engine spiders, the more you pay attention to search engine spiders, and therefore the easier it is to spot them. This is the "fear of what to come" in plain language.

> take a chance

>It is the most instructive point of Murphy's Law.

Here, tell everyone a little story from ancient Greek mythology. The protagonist of the short story is called Oedipus. The birth of Oedipus was an accident, because his father felt that he was cursed, and the child he gave birth would kill him and continue to marry his wife, which is the child's biological parents and mother.

As a result, his father was drunk and uncontrollable, or accidentally did a little fitness exercise with his wife, and finally gave birth to Oedipus. To better avoid Oedipus' first curse, his father threw him into the wasteland. As a result, Oedipus was rescued by an unknown shepherd. When he grew up, because he didn't know who his biological parents were, he killed his biological parents and father, and married his mother according to the knowledge of etiquette in our country. Only after the prophet's reminder did he realize that he had made a big mistake. Thus, Oedipus sentiment becomes the meaning of the well-known Oedipus plot.

It can be seen that his father tried to minimize the occurrence of misfortune, and as a result, he failed to escape the punishment of fortune. If he couldn't believe this speculation, and raised the child well enough to make him a strong man, Oedipus probably wouldn't have killed his father easily. This is a fluke, to put it bluntly.

Just like when my girlfriend went on vacation last year, she filled a bottle with makeup remover. She was afraid of spilling the make-up remover because of the loose stopper, so she tightened it especially tightly. As a result, because it was too tight, it was very hard to twist it open. As a result, when my hand slipped, the makeup remover was spilled.

The same is true for many people at work. They feel that there may be problems at some levels, so they try to minimize them. As a result, mistakes are made in other areas.

In Chinese history, there is also a situation, which is the typical Murphy's law - the theory of prophecy, that is, the emperor's unfortunate speculation. For example, in the case of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty heard the speculation that the surnamed Li was going to rebel, and as a result, he killed the surnamed Li everywhere, ignoring Li Yuan, and was finally defeated by Li Yuan's Tang Dynasty.

After reading many historical times, the most famous example to prevent this incorrect case is Li Shimin Tang Taizong. Some people told him that the surnamed Wu wanted to rebel, and he also considered whether it was necessary to kill all the surnamed Wu. As a result, the high-ranking minister remonstrated: You can only kill adults when you kill people with the surname Wu. It is presumed that it will be effective. Therefore, there will be younger people with the surname Wu. The young people are violent, and there is no doubt that they will be effective for the old Liu family Behead to kill. If you have this person, this person will be older and will be more compassionate and will attract future generations in the family. Sure enough, Tang Taizong did not fall into the vicious circle of Murphy's Law, and finally Wu Fangtian came to power, but in his later years, the party was returned to the Liu family.

How to prevent Murphy's Law

After talking so much about Murphy's Law, you will find that in fact this is only the result of everyone's psychological factors. However, it still produces not so good results.

So, how can you prevent Murphy's Law?

For the first two reasons, in fact, you only need to take precautions before it happens. For example, eating melons, if you look carefully before eating, you will find that all the stinky seeds have rotten holes, so if you throw away such sunflower seeds, it will not be easy to eat the stinky seeds.

For the third situation, then you don't need to make any changes in personal behavior, because there are fools in the world, everyone encounters unfortunate things, and you always have one or two unfortunate days in a year. What you need to do is to adjust a good state of mind, accept the reality, and don’t exaggerate the effect of such troublesome things in your mind, and you don’t have to let such troublesome things harm your emotions, thereby further harming your daily life. That's it.

For the last situation, it is the most meaningful specific guidance use value. If you feel that something may be wrong or overlooked in your work or other situations, you need to calm down and analyze the reasons, rather than blindly follow the trend and adjust your own way of working. Incorrect results can be prevented simply by taking effective countermeasures. The fear is that if you mess yourself up first, then the problem does happen.

Murphy's Law is often fashionable. As we mentioned earlier, it is empathy. When most people hear about Murphy's Law and think about their daily life, they can't help but sigh: "It's so accurate!" However, because the pace of life is too fast, they have no time to take into account the guidance of Murphy's Law. role, and only understand its fur.

The popularity of the phrase Murphy's Law, coupled with everyone's lack of understanding, eventually led to the gradual departure of Murphy's Law from its true use value, but only as a special tool for many people to pretend to have knowledge. After all, the words "Murphy's Law" seem to sound more high-end than "Why am I so unfortunate". Therefore, this makes Murphy's Law more fashionable.

Speaking of this, I am reminded of a proper term in socioeconomics - the birdcage effect, which means that when everyone is not very wealthy in economic development, the sales of lipsticks will increase accordingly. This is often the case, because lipstick is the most cost-effective luxury brand, that is, it can achieve the impulse of everyone to use luxury brands, and it is not easy to invest too much cost in economic development. Simply put, the birdcage effect is about the main manifestation of the fusion of grievance and emotional adjustment.