Why Do Things Go Wrong?

I remember those days of suburban train rides to the office. I would stand on Platform 4. Just one minute before arrival, comes the announcement: "Train is arriving on Platform 1." A frantic scramble up the footbridge begins. Miss that train and your whole day goes for a toss. Reach office late, and the boss would greet you with the same old line: “If something can go wrong, they will.”
Back then, not a single day passed without someone quoting Murphy, sometimes in the right way, sometimes not. But who was Murphy, and how did he end up being blamed for every little mishap?

Captain Edward A Murphy was no doomsayer. He was an engineer. In 1949, at Edwards Air Force Base, a technician miswired a sensor during an important test. Murphy reacted: “If there are two or more ways to do something, someone will choose the wrong way.”

His words were not about bad luck, but good design. Failure does not just happen by chance. It comes from unchecked assumptions. Assumptions left unchecked are not oversights. They are guarantees of failure.

Over time, this idea turned into the famous line we all know: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

We however misread his call for precision as an excuse for chaos. Murphy wasn't behind the train’s last-minute platform switch. He was the ghost in the control room, wishing for a smarter system. It was a warning. But we turned it into a joke.

Part-2 drops soon: How Murphy's Law plays out in your life, and what it really teaches us? Follow so you don't miss it.

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