"upbeat—it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone be left unturned—not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluenceable fate. According to David J. Hand, emeritus professor of mathematics and senior research investigator at Imperial College London, Sod's law is a more extreme version of Murphy's law. While Murphy's law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (eventually), Sod's law requires that it ""always"" goes wrong with the worst possible outcome. Hand suggests that belief in Sod's law is a combination of the"
"Murphy's law Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: ""Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"". The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find. The concept may be as old as humanity. Recent significant research in this area has been conducted by members of the American Dialect Society. Society member Stephen Goranson has found a version of the law, not yet generalized or bearing that name, in a report by Alfred Holt at an 1877"
"Sod's law Sod's law is the axiom that ""if something ""can"" go wrong, it will"", with the further addendum, in British culture, borrowed from Finagle's law, that it will happen at ""the worst possible time"". This may simply be construed, again in British culture, as ""hope for the best, expect the worst"". The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an ""unlucky sod""; a term for someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person. The term is still used in the United Kingdom, though in"
"truly large numbers. Sod's law Sod's law is the axiom that ""if something ""can"" go wrong, it will"", with the further addendum, in British culture, borrowed from Finagle's law, that it will happen at ""the worst possible time"". This may simply be construed, again in British culture, as ""hope for the best, expect the worst"". The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an ""unlucky sod""; a term for someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person. The term is still used in the United"
"Finagle's law Finagle's law of dynamic negatives (also known as Melody's law or Finagle's corollary to Murphy's law) is usually rendered as ""Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment."" The term ""Finagle's law"" was first used by John W. Campbell, Jr., the influential editor of ""Astounding Science Fiction"" (later ""Analog""). He used it frequently in his editorials for many years in the 1940s to 1960s, but it never came into general usage the way Murphy's law has. One variant (known as O'Toole's corollary of Finagle's law) favored among hackers is a takeoff on the second law of"
"only be justified by the fact that it gives more correct results. Also known as Finagle's variable constant, it is sometimes defined as the correct answer divided by your answer. Finagle's law Finagle's law of dynamic negatives (also known as Melody's law or Finagle's corollary to Murphy's law) is usually rendered as ""Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment."" The term ""Finagle's law"" was first used by John W. Campbell, Jr., the influential editor of ""Astounding Science Fiction"" (later ""Analog""). He used it frequently in his editorials for many years in the 1940s to 1960s, but it"
"form of Murphy's law goes back as far as 1952, as an epigraph to a mountaineering book by John Sack, who described it as an ""ancient mountaineering adage"": Anything that can possibly go wrong, does. According to the book ""A History of Murphy's Law"" by author Nick T. Spark, differing recollections years later by various participants make it impossible to pinpoint who first coined the saying ""Murphy's law"". The law's name supposedly stems from an attempt to use new measurement devices developed by Edward Murphy. The phrase was coined in adverse reaction to something Murphy said when his devices failed"
"well confirmed by practice, what-ever can happen will happen if we make trials enough."" In later publications ""whatever can happen will happen"" occasionally is termed ""Murphy's law,"" which raises the possibility—if something went wrong—that ""Murphy"" is ""De Morgan"" misremembered (an option, among others, raised by Goranson on the American Dialect Society list). American Dialect Society member Bill Mullins has found a slightly broader version of the aphorism in reference to stage magic. The British stage magician Nevil Maskelyne wrote in 1908: It is an experience common to all men to find that, on any special occasion, such as the production"
"Principle of explosion The principle of explosion (Latin: ""ex falso (sequitur) quodlibet"" (EFQ), ""from falsehood, anything (follows)"", or ""ex contradictione (sequitur) quodlibet"" (ECQ), ""from contradiction, anything (follows)""), or the principle of Pseudo-Scotus, is the law of classical logic, intuitionistic logic and similar logical systems, according to which any statement can be proven from a contradiction. That is, once a contradiction has been asserted, any proposition (including their negations) can be inferred from it. This is known as deductive explosion. The proof of this principle was first given by 12th century French philosopher William of Soissons. As a demonstration of the"
"All models are wrong ""All models are wrong"" is a common aphorism in statistics. It is usually considered to be applicable to not only statistical models, but to scientific models generally. The aphorism is generally attributed to the statistician George Box, although the underlying concept predates Box's writings. The first record of Box saying ""all models are wrong"" is in a 1976 paper published in the ""Journal of the American Statistical Association"". The paragraph containing the aphorism is below. Box repeated the aphorism in a paper that was published in the proceedings of a 1978 statistics workshop. The paper contains"
"in various languages expressing the same sentiment; in English most idiomatic is ""All that's fair must fade,"" following a line of Thomas Moore. Within Buddhism, the corresponding doctrine is impermanence. In East Asian Buddhism, the analogous saying is the four-character idiom 盛者必衰 (Japanese: ), from a passage in the Humane King Sutra, 「盛者必衰、実者必虚」, which translates as ""The prosperous inevitably decline, the full inevitably empty"". In Japan this is well-known due to its use in the opening line of ""The Tale of the Heike"", whose latter half reads . Sic transit gloria mundi Sic transit gloria mundi is a Latin phrase"
"Similarly, in 1947, John von Neumann said that ""truth … is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations"". All models are wrong ""All models are wrong"" is a common aphorism in statistics. It is usually considered to be applicable to not only statistical models, but to scientific models generally. The aphorism is generally attributed to the statistician George Box, although the underlying concept predates Box's writings. The first record of Box saying ""all models are wrong"" is in a 1976 paper published in the ""Journal of the American Statistical Association"". The paragraph containing the aphorism is below. Box repeated"
"impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood. That is to say, the principle of explosion is an argument for the law of non-contradiction in classical logic, because without it all truth statements become meaningless. Principle of explosion The principle of explosion (Latin: ""ex falso (sequitur) quodlibet"" (EFQ), ""from falsehood, anything (follows)"", or ""ex contradictione (sequitur) quodlibet"" (ECQ), ""from contradiction, anything (follows)""), or the principle of Pseudo-Scotus, is the law of classical logic, intuitionistic logic and similar logical systems, according to which any statement can be proven from a contradiction. That is, once a contradiction has been asserted, any proposition (including their"
"Fallibilism Broadly speaking, fallibilism (from Medieval Latin: ""fallibilis"", ""liable to err"") is the philosophical claim that no belief can have justification which guarantees the truth of the belief. However, not all fallibilists believe that fallibilism extends to all domains of knowledge. The term ""fallibilism"" is used in a variety of senses in contemporary epistemology. The term was coined in the late nineteenth century by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. By ""fallibilism"", Peirce meant the view that ""people cannot attain absolute certainty concerning questions of fact."" Other theorists of knowledge have used the term differently. Thus, ""fallibilism"" has been used"
"a 1956 issue of ""Galaxy"". The second adage, variously rendered as ""ninety percent of everything is crud"" or ""ninety percent of everything is crap"", was originally known as ""Sturgeon's Revelation"", formulated as such in his book review column for ""Venture"" in 1957. However, almost all modern uses of the term Sturgeon's law actually refer to the second, including the definition listed in the ""Oxford English Dictionary"". Sturgeon's law Sturgeon's revelation (as originally expounded by Theodore Sturgeon), commonly referred to as Sturgeon's law, is an adage commonly cited as ""ninety percent of everything is crap"". It is derived from quotations by"
"Axiom of Causality The Axiom of Causality is the proposition that everything in the universe has a cause and is thus an effect of that cause. This means that if a given event occurs, then this is the result of a previous, related event. If an object is in a certain state, then it is in that state as a result of another object interacting with it previously. According to William Whewell the concept of causality depends on three axioms: A similar idea is found in western philosophy for ages (sometimes called Principle of Universal Causation (PUC) or Law of"
"axioms that he calls ""empirically grounded"" and an apriori assumption that ""something exists."" The axioms are that: P1. The principle of sufficient reason: All phenomena are either self-caused (i.e. A->A) or other-caused (B->A; B is not equal to A) but not both. Put another way, this principle says that the question ""why?"" is always meaningful. Everything happens for a reason. P2. The potency principle: If A -> B then for all C element of B, A -> C. In other words if A is the cause of B then A is the cause of every part of B. There are"
"has no reason to move to a new one. Some critics have taken the theorem to mean that General equilibrium analysis cannot be usefully applied to understand real-life economies since it makes imprecise predictions (hence, the “Anything Goes” moniker). Others have countered that there is no ""a priori"" reason why one should expect a real-life economy to have a unique equilibrium and hence the possibility of multiple outcomes is in fact a realistic feature of the theory , with the saving grace that it is still possible to analyze local shocks in a 'comparative statics' view point. The extension to"
"a good idea. Law Number XXXVII: Ninety percent of the time things will turn out worse than you expect. The other 10 percent of the time you had no right to expect so much. Law Number XXXVIII: The early bird gets the worm. The early worm...gets eaten. Law Number XXXIX: Never promise to complete any project within six months of the end of the year, in either direction. Law Number XL: Most projects start out slowly, and then sort of taper off. Law Number XLI: The more one produces, the less one gets. Law Number XLII: Simple systems are not"
"North America the eponymous ""Murphy's law"" is more popular. Sod's law is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law (""Whatever can go wrong will go wrong""). For example, concepts such as ""bad fortune will be tailored to the individual"" and ""good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions"" are sometimes given as examples of Sod's law in action. This would broaden Sod's law to a general sense of being ""mocked by fate"". In these aspects, it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981 is more"
"Axiom of regularity In mathematics, the axiom of regularity (also known as the axiom of foundation) is an axiom of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory that states that every non-empty set ""A"" contains an element that is disjoint from ""A"". In first-order logic, the axiom reads: The axiom implies that no set is an element of itself, and that there is no infinite sequence (""a"") such that ""a"" is an element of ""a"" for all ""i"". With the axiom of dependent choice (which is a weakened form of the axiom of choice), this result can be reversed: if there are no such"
"every fact . XRay and GADeL Default logic Default logic is a non-monotonic logic proposed by Raymond Reiter to formalize reasoning with default assumptions. Default logic can express facts like “by default, something is true”; by contrast, standard logic can only express that something is true or that something is false. This is a problem because reasoning often involves facts that are true in the majority of cases but not always. A classical example is: “birds typically fly”. This rule can be expressed in standard logic either by “all birds fly”, which is inconsistent with the fact that penguins do"
"Law of averages The law of averages is the fallacious belief that a particular outcome or event is inevitable or certain simply because it is statistically possible. Depending on context or application it can be considered a valid common-sense observation or a misunderstanding of probability. This notion can lead to the gambler's fallacy when one becomes convinced that a particular outcome must come soon simply because it has not occurred recently (e.g. believing that because three consecutive coin flips yielded ""heads"", the next coin flip must be virtually guaranteed to be ""tails""). As invoked in everyday life, the ""law"" usually"
"Sturgeon's law Sturgeon's revelation (as originally expounded by Theodore Sturgeon), commonly referred to as Sturgeon's law, is an adage commonly cited as ""ninety percent of everything is crap"". It is derived from quotations by Sturgeon, an American science fiction author and critic; while Sturgeon coined another adage that he termed ""Sturgeon's law"", it is the ""ninety percent crap"" remark that is usually referred to by that term. The phrase was derived from Sturgeon's observation that while science fiction was often derided for its low quality by critics, the majority of examples of works in other fields could equally be seen"
"Default logic Default logic is a non-monotonic logic proposed by Raymond Reiter to formalize reasoning with default assumptions. Default logic can express facts like “by default, something is true”; by contrast, standard logic can only express that something is true or that something is false. This is a problem because reasoning often involves facts that are true in the majority of cases but not always. A classical example is: “birds typically fly”. This rule can be expressed in standard logic either by “all birds fly”, which is inconsistent with the fact that penguins do not fly, or by “all birds"
"Axiom An axiom or postulate is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Greek ""axíōma"" () 'that which is thought worthy or fit' or 'that which commends itself as evident.' The term has subtle differences in definition when used in the context of different fields of study. As defined in classic philosophy, an axiom is a statement that is so evident or well-established, that it is accepted without controversy or question. As used in modern logic, an axiom is a premise"
"She'll be right She'll be right (often followed by a friendly term of address such as ""mate"") is a frequently used idiom in Australian and New Zealand culture that expresses the belief that ""whatever is wrong will right itself with time"", which is considered to be either an optimistic or apathetic outlook. The term can also be used to refer to a situation or object which is not perfect but is good enough to fulfil its purpose. In this usage, ""she"" represents everything, allowing the phrase to be used both in circumstances of extreme hardship and in casual speech referring"
"This too shall pass ""This too shall pass"" (, , ) is an adage reflecting on the temporary nature, or ephemerality, of the human condition. The general sentiment is often expressed in wisdom literature throughout history and across cultures, although the specific phrase seems to have originated in the writings of the medieval Persian Sufi poets. It is known in the Western world primarily due to a 19th century retelling of Persian fable by the English poet Edward FitzGerald. It was also notably employed in a speech by Abraham Lincoln before he became the sixteenth President of the United States."
"into the ears of tens of millions” “reading newspapers and listening to the radio are psychological addictions” “I see the better and I approve; but the worst is what I pursue” “If offered the choice between liberty and security, most people would unhesitatingly vote for security” “the dogma of inevitable progress became an unquestioned article of popular faith” “the belief in all-round progress is based upon the wishful dream that one can get something for nothing” “the most important lesson in history, it has been said, is that nobody ever learns history's lessons” “denies the value of a human being"
"Axiom of choice In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that ""the Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty"". Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collection of bins, each containing at least one object, it is possible to make a selection of exactly one object from each bin, even if the collection is infinite. Formally, it states that for every indexed family formula_1 of nonempty sets there exists an indexed family formula_2 of elements such that formula_3 for every formula_4. The axiom"
"all events—past, present and future—are theoretically determinate. See Causal determinism. If all effects are the result of previous causes, then the cause of a given effect must itself be the effect of a previous cause, which itself is the effect of a previous cause, and so on, forming an infinite logical chain of events that can have no beginning. Axiom of Causality The Axiom of Causality is the proposition that everything in the universe has a cause and is thus an effect of that cause. This means that if a given event occurs, then this is the result of a"
"Accident (fallacy) The informal fallacy of accident (also called destroying the exception or a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid) is a deductively valid but unsound argument occurring in a statistical syllogism (an argument based on a generalization) when an exception to a rule of thumb is ignored. It is one of the thirteen fallacies originally identified by Aristotle in ""Sophistical Refutations"". The fallacy occurs when one attempts to apply a general rule to an irrelevant situation. For example: It is easy to construct fallacious arguments by applying general statements to specific incidents that are obviously exceptions. Generalizations that are"
"Might makes right Might makes right is an aphorism with several potential meanings (in order of increasing complexity): The idea of ""woe to the conquered"" can be found in Homer and the hawk parable in Hesiod's ""Works and Days"" and in Livy, in which ""vae victis"", Latin for ""woe to the conquered"", is first recorded. The first commonly quoted use of ""might makes right"" in the English language was in 1846 by the American pacifist and abolitionist Adin Ballou (1803–1890), who wrote, ""But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and"