Romig’s Law

Ed was frustrated. He was a development engineer for Wright Field Aircraft who was having one of those days. Well to be more accurate he was having one of those project. You know the kind, right? If Lucifer were to send a project your way it would be this kind of project. To be fair to Beelzebub he didn’t have any direct contact with the problem. The technician who had wired the strain gage bridges at the lab actually played the role of the Prince of Lies for Ed. The strap transducer (your guess is as good as mine) was malfunctioning due to a wiring error. Ed made a comment about the aforementioned Satanic substitute that basically said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he will.” Ed Murphy’s statement then evolved into the law that bears his name that says more generally, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Am I the only one who thinks that Murphy’s Law is just outrageously optimistic? Consider if you will the word: foolproof. I would like to meet the person who coined that term. Really now? Come on! How many fools had this person really met? On occasion I have proven that particular phrase to be erroneous at best or at the very least myopic optimism. However, there have also been many times that I have seen the combination of Murphy’s Law and the foolproof come together in a curious conflagration creating a catastrophe of critical creativity. Consider all the instances throughout history that this has occurred. The building of a tower on a substandard foundation created a situation in Pisa that to this day is a demonstration of near demolition. What would you say to the idea of building a major metropolitan area along a major fault line in the San Andreas area? Don’t worry. It’s not like anything important in the entertainment world happens in Southern California. And don’t even get me started on the idea of maintaining a bead baring barrio below sea level right by the water!

Murphy would agree with the philosophy that a fool and his money are soon parted. I agree with the associated viewpoint that a fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place. That may explain my financial failures now that I think about it. If you have any argument with that point of view I only have three words for you: Dumb and Dumber.

All that aside, I think Murphy may have a point. It is not a happy, optimistic, cheerful or hopeful point. But it is a point. But you know what? It is not a point I choose to share. Sure bad things happen to good people. Of course there are problems in the world. No one ever promised a life that was fair and smelled like roses. In fact life tends to smell like the fertilizer around the roses a lot of the time. But I think I will follow Romig’s Law instead. That one says, “Sometimes things go wrong but that is part of life. You do not have to dwell on it longer than it takes to change it into something better.” I wonder if it will catch on.