"If you go ahead and say something, people will get mad and accuse you of being too bold/impudent/forward, expecting too much, or asking too many questions. But if you keep quiet, people will criticize you for being too wimpy to stand up for yourself."
As a child and teenager, people always griped at me for my speaking my mind, and so I finally got too timid to open my mouth. Nowadays, however, many folks --- including some of those very same criticizers from my youth --- tell me that I need to stick up for myself more and stop being such a wuss... can't win! Classic example of "Murphy's Law of Speaking Up", I guess.
by QuacksO June 12, 2019
Get the Murphy's Law of Speaking Up mug.More or less, if a cat always lands on its feet, and the bread always lands peanut butter side down, then if you strap a piece of bread to a cat and drop it, what happens? It implodes.
by bob_the_russian November 5, 2003
Get the murphy's law mug.by Dalby's fan December 2, 2009
Get the Murphy's Law mug.by Erin August 29, 2004
Get the murphy's law mug.-Your driving skill is inversely proportional to how attractive your passenger is.-
The non-gender-specific propensity for things to go horribly wrong whilst attempting some vehicular stunt when an attractive member of the opposite sex is involved.
The non-gender-specific propensity for things to go horribly wrong whilst attempting some vehicular stunt when an attractive member of the opposite sex is involved.
John: "I've drifted that corner a hundred times with no problem, but as soon as Jane was in the car, it all went to hell and now she's left me and my car is totalled...."
Fred: "Murphy's Law of Driving dude...I told you not to try that with her in the car"
Fred: "Murphy's Law of Driving dude...I told you not to try that with her in the car"
by Stig's Unlucky Cousin June 16, 2010
Get the Murphy's Law of Driving mug.An example of Mrs Murphy's law:
Your driving to work and your running late.
Not only do your brakes fail, but you have just made it over a hill, and it's a long way down.
Your design project that counts for a third of your year 12 subject score is almost finished after 13 weeks.
Not only has your computer died and refuses to start again (even in safe mode!) you where only 5 mins off printing it out and handing it in later that day. There are no extensions!
Your driving to work and your running late.
Not only do your brakes fail, but you have just made it over a hill, and it's a long way down.
Your design project that counts for a third of your year 12 subject score is almost finished after 13 weeks.
Not only has your computer died and refuses to start again (even in safe mode!) you where only 5 mins off printing it out and handing it in later that day. There are no extensions!
by xxbuffyfreakxx January 14, 2009
Get the Mrs Murphy's law mug."Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
From an inventor's viewpoint, this is ultimately an argument for keeping things simple and focused on a single task. The simpler an invention is, the less scenarios need to be considered and tested.
Another way to understand it is as though you are living in the future looking back at a problem that occurred:
"If something went wrong with your invention, it's because you didn't do anything to prevent that scenario from happening".
Examples of things you could have prevented but didn't, and thus went wrong:
- The electrical cables burned the house down because the load was too hot. This could have been prevented by adding a fuse, but you didn't.
- The water heater exploded because it didn't have a pressure release valve, which it could have had, but didn't.
- The door fell off the plane when it went upside down because the hinge pin didn't have a lock, which it could have had, but didn't.
- The Earth shifted and caused cracks in the clay pipes under the house, which could have been prevented if flexible piping was used, but it wasn't.
Again, ultimately this is a reminder to keep your invention as simple as possible. It's often tempting to keep throwing new features into it, to make it appeal to a larger audience or solve more problems, but every new feature creates new, untested possible outcomes which can be hard to predict. Hard to predict that is, until they've happened, which they will.
From an inventor's viewpoint, this is ultimately an argument for keeping things simple and focused on a single task. The simpler an invention is, the less scenarios need to be considered and tested.
Another way to understand it is as though you are living in the future looking back at a problem that occurred:
"If something went wrong with your invention, it's because you didn't do anything to prevent that scenario from happening".
Examples of things you could have prevented but didn't, and thus went wrong:
- The electrical cables burned the house down because the load was too hot. This could have been prevented by adding a fuse, but you didn't.
- The water heater exploded because it didn't have a pressure release valve, which it could have had, but didn't.
- The door fell off the plane when it went upside down because the hinge pin didn't have a lock, which it could have had, but didn't.
- The Earth shifted and caused cracks in the clay pipes under the house, which could have been prevented if flexible piping was used, but it wasn't.
Again, ultimately this is a reminder to keep your invention as simple as possible. It's often tempting to keep throwing new features into it, to make it appeal to a larger audience or solve more problems, but every new feature creates new, untested possible outcomes which can be hard to predict. Hard to predict that is, until they've happened, which they will.
Inventor 1: I created a lightswitch! It has 2 possible states: on or off. I'm aware all of the scenarios that could exist!
Critic: Great, except I see you used iron on the connector pins. Did you account for the corrosive reaction if copper wire is used against the iron? Murphy's Law dictates that it will happen at some point, because it could.
Critic: Great, except I see you used iron on the connector pins. Did you account for the corrosive reaction if copper wire is used against the iron? Murphy's Law dictates that it will happen at some point, because it could.
by pjayyy April 11, 2019
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