Laws of the Universe

Big fat announcement: James finally blogged! I urged him to blog at least once a week during our vacation, so now you can see his side of things and admire his humour just as much as I do. ♥️

Earlier this evening I was talking to Lilian about cleaning out my websites. I have decided that I need to consolidate. It is much nicer having just a few websites than having so many scattered everywhere. That said, I will most likely be moving my writing portfolio and A Letter To A Domain project here. I also mentioned to Lilian that I would get rid of any superfluous visitor content, to which she responded, “I bet as soon as you get rid of them, people will want it back!”

I realised this was partially true of my old free layouts, which I thought were horrid, so I took them down, replacing them with new ones. People asked me for the old ones because they liked them. Ah, oops.

This got us discussing Murphy’s Law:

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

Of course, this is relatively similar to Sod’s Law and Finagle’s Law:

“Anything that can go wrong, will”.
“Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment”.

Sod’s Law is more commonly related to fate – such as Beethoven being a deaf composer, or athlete Lou Gehrig developing the neurological disorder known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Finagle’s Law was made popular in science fiction, such as Star Trek, and can often be seen expressed as “Inanimate objects are out to get us”. Now that would be the worst of it, wouldn’t it?

Often, I find myself expecting the worst. Seb always told me to expect the worst, but hope for the best. In all situations I worry about, I find myself excessively expecting the absolute worst to happen, even if it is something ludicrous and, though possible, is very, very, very unlikely.

Being very curious about these laws, I looked into more of them, including Sturgeon’s Law, which will probably relate to everyone who thinks that knowledge is pointless.

“ninety percent of everything is crud” or “ninety percent of everything is crap”

My high school friend Karen used to say – the more you learn, the more you know; the more you know, the more you remember; the more you remember, the more you forget; the more you forget, the less you remember; the less you remember, the less you know; so why learn? I suppose Sturgeon’s Law summed that up nicely. And this too reminds me of a boy I used to know who thought that high school and the HSC (in my state) was the most important thing. It isn’t. Everyone who has graduated high school will probably agree with me that a lot of it was useless. Oh, thank you Sturgeon.

Now, this one is for the ones who are angsty about grammar and spelling. Ever felt like slitting a throat or killing a kitten every time someone misuses “you’re ugly” and writes “your ugly”1 instead? Or perhaps you’re like me, and feel compelled to correct every apostrophe catastrophe you see on someone’s forum post?

Muphry’s law – “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written”. (The name is a deliberate misspelling of Murphy’s law.)
Skitt’s law – A corollary of Muphry’s law, variously expressed as, “Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself,” or, “The likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster.” (Thus often referring to the internet.)

I find it rather ironic that people like to correct spelling and grammar and boast about it, when I see that they make their own spelling and grammar mistakes…

One that I probably have to be a little sad about, being a fan of Doctor Who and Back to the Future, is the following law. I mean, I never really wished I could change the past anyway, but sometimes rewinding just a bit into the past, just ten minutes, to buy myself a bit of time or to fix just one mistake that ends up rolling down the hill into a chain of unfortunate events later on (Sod’s Law, dude!)… is all I really wished for. /faw

Niven’s laws: “If the universe of discourse permits the possibility of time travel and of changing the past, then no time machine will be invented in that universe.”

I also find myself thinking too much at certain times. I have to tell myself to relax, take a break from whatever it is, and come back to it later… because by then it’ll be clearer. I used to question the silliest things, like why I have a reflex, or how I learn to read a word in a foreign language so easily. Not only is the answer painfully obvious, but sometimes it’s just not. There are, of course, things more mundane, like walking and brushing teeth and showering, which don’t need to be thought about. Don’t think. Just do:

Humphrey’s law – conscious attention to a task normally performed automatically can impair its performance.

And to end, a few other favourites, of which I think the first two would benefit to people dealing with a relationship breakup:

Stein’s law – If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. If a trend cannot go on forever, there is no need for action to make it stop, much less to make it stop immediately; it will stop of its own accord.
Sayre’s law – “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue.”
Herblock’s law – “If it’s good, they’ll stop making it.”
Hutber’s law – “Improvement means deterioration.”

So, got any favourite laws? Found some in this post that you could live by? Found some you already swear by but could never find a name for?

  1. My ugly what? ↩

Comments on this post

lol ur a fag

Thanks for the plug :P

Yeah, the HSC was pretty poor. I think most examination-based systems are poor judges of capability and intellect, to be honest. I do okay in them but I know people who are smarter than me who perform poorly, and at the same time I know people who are not as smart as me who perform better. Ah well. pazuzu

Nice laws, but I am most fond of Stein’s.

(Y)

Laws laws laws. I like laws. They are fun and give a little insight as to what life is. That’s why I find them fascinating, and much can be learn from there. Sure, they’re not 100% correct… but they’re close enough. And that makes them worth learning about:3

My favourite laws are, in no particular order, Issac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, Murphy’s law and Sturgeon’s law. I would say why, but that’ll probably take too long and I’m planning to write a blog right after this, so I better get going heh.

I actually didn’t know about Sod’s and Finagle’s law. I notice how similar they sound to Murphy’s law, it makes me wonder who influence who at the end. It doesn’t matter I guess, but it’s still fascinating how true they can be. It’s rather scary at times, too.

I remember telling to expect the worse but hope for the best haha. Funny how we think of little laws or guidelines or advice and we give them to people, but we don’t actually follow them ourselves. Although in my case, I just forget. Or maybe I just do it on a subconscious level. Either way, that’s the topic for my blog tonight, hopefully you enjoy it.

Hello!

Yay! James blogged. Soon it’ll be my turn D:. I can’t believe how little I blog now compared to when we were in highschool. I wonder if there’s a rule for that xD.

Good luck with the website cleaning-out :D. RUTHLESS GEORGIE! Clear those fanlistings out. Yeah! Hahaha.

Man I can’t believe they have all those laws for so many things D:. And it’s still a little confusing to differentiate between Murphy’s Law and Sod’s Law. I wonder if I can graduate with a law degree if I can successfully memorise all those laws. LOL.

Btw if there are any errors in this comment, I’m going to NOT collect them for fear of Muphry’s Law D:. Oh dear.

And it’s a little depressing to think that 90% of what we learn is useless xD. But it’s totally true. I literally forget most of the crap I learn the minute the exam finishes. WASTE OF TIME! Haha, how sad :(.

But yeah, these Laws are so amusing XD.

Such an intellectually boosting entry, dear Georgie! ;3 Me likes it.

Honestly, I like by.georgie.nu and letters.georgie.nu the way they are now. The URLs have meaning, they’re short and they are known that way by your readers (I’m one, even though I have no time to comment for now).

Interesting laws. All too pessimistic in my opinion though. ^^ I like seeing the bright side of things: there is something perfect even in things that go wrong, especially when from the mistake the good is born – like when you learn from your bad experiences.

Finagle’s Law is pretty interesting when applied to Sci-Fi though. ;)

P.S. Ah yes, I forgot to tell you I bought aijou.org ;) From your Site Name Ideas list.
I have yet to send you that email. xP I forget stuff all too easily of late.

I really like Humphrey’s Law (the one you posted) about tasks being performed automatically. Oh well! Sometimes we disregard even the important things because we do it on a regular basis.

It’s cute that your boyfriend blogs now! Heehee i’ll go check out his blog in awhile ;)

BTW I tweaked my giveaway’s mechanics a bit ;) Hope you could check. Thanks!

It’s hard to get boys to blog “properly”! It’s just a little thing :P.

Cleaning out your websites?! I never knew how you can keep track of all of them :P! People will always use your awesome contents whether you like it or not. What I’d say- keep what you can until you really want to get rid of it :P.

I didn’t know what these laws really exist o__o. I just thought it’s some popular saying throughout life :O! Seb is right, always expect for the worst and hope for the best. It just keeps you from going downhill whenever something super duper bad happens.

I just think the more you learn, the more … phrase is made for escape school or something :P! I remembered attempting to learn a lot about physics last year. Now, I just forgot everything. What is newton’s law? What is this and that? D:!

With that your/you’re grammar thing, I just throught of it as, the more people that doesn’t know how to use apostrophes right, the easier it is to get through life: less competition :P. But meh.

I think I can life by Humphrey’s law because it’s true. I imagined me just going through a hard tune without trying and doing it easily. But when I concentrate, it’s harder going through it bits by bits trying D:! Can’t escape that :P!

It is definitely nice to have friends and teachers taking time out to look over applications :D! My librarian told me any parent would sacrifice a few bucks to pay for college applications without a doubt. :’).

With the many school activities I do, I should have an advantage in the process of admissions. I don’t know, I just have some doubt in mind becaue of the 2 F’s I got last semester- lowering down my GPA :/…..

Learning and working with a new cms is awesome in your work :D! I want to learn about something new as well, more towards using smarty to work with my photoblog’s layout :P. But it’s in the process.. Kinda. :/.

Take care(:

These Laws are so amusing xD I like them :P Though I must admit that I never had read them before. xD

I felt like I just went through a college lesson! xD

But, very interesting post. I do feel some things in high school was/is pretty useless. I feel I learn a lot more by my own observations and researching things that interest me on my own time online. High school is all about completing your country’s/state’s standards and all that bull crap. The only things I seemed to learn was math related, but I’ve forgotten how to do most the stuff I “learned” and I don’t even use anything I “learned” in my day-to-day routine anyway… :P

I refer to Murphy’s Law all the time, but to be honest, I don’t think that much about any of that stuff because I think it’s a waste of time. I agree with your friend Seb – to expect the worst and hope for the best, because that often tends to happen, but you don’t want to be too pessimistic! I’m really bad and tend to be too pessimistic rather than optimistic most of the time, but yeah, I try to not think about all that stuff too much. You don’t want a self-fulfilling prophecy! Haha.

To me, Sayre’s law and Hutber are usually not true these days, and I hope that Herblock’s law is not true either. I like having faith in the world… Or I just really want Hutber’s law to not be true.

I personally think that living by one of those laws is too depressing. I like to think that if I’m prepared and have everything ready ahead of time, that things will be okay, and that’s how I roll.

I visited james site and his theme is so nice! a puppy as his header xD ahh! If only I am a pro in making themes i would also do the same. hihihi :D knowing those laws twist my mind o.O but for me, experience is = to learning. xD I don’t know who owns this quote but, some says, the more you learn the more that you don’t know. It is juts because, when you are learning something you don’t know where its ending or how it would be. o.O but, aah! It confuse me now. lol >.<'

I feel like this should be five separate posts. Too much to comment here :P

There’s a lot of truth here. Like you always pick the longest line in the grocery store. Mathematically, odds are that you will actually choose the l “wrong” line because the odds are that one of the other lines is moving faster.

“Anything that can go wrong, will” – yes I’ve definitely had a lot of that going on recently!! I find it hard to resist correcting grammar on forum posts too O_O

Murphy’s Law is just a normal part of my life it seems. Right at this point in time I’m waiting for something bad to happen that deal with my weekend trip – weather, car problems, anything – I’m sure something will happen. Well I’m not sure, I’m just waiting because it always seems something happens when I’m going on a trip. I’m trying to talk myself out of thinking that way, but I can’t help it.

My favorite law would have to be the Hawthorn effect. It goes by other names within the realm of physics and biology but its the same thing. The laws states that under observation, things behave differently. There are studies out there that even look and the change in motion by subatomic particles!

awe, that sucks :( but its good that you found someone so much better :) My ex and I were the same way, off and on. I just got tired of it all. He couldn’t “grow up” (hes 27 still living with and off of daddy). Plus I felt like I always had to compare myself to his “”first real girlfriend”. I think he changed me for the worst when it comes to guys, because I find myself now always comparing myself, where before him I never cared about their ex’s. Blah.
I don’t think anyone can predict the world ending so I think their just silly lol. Although, I am scared that it will, but I know that it wont :P

Downsizing can always be a good thing, but I have to agree; taking something away will most likely ALWAYS have people questioning it and wanting it back lol. But really, it’s up to you :)
I find these laws interesting. I’ve heard of some of them before but never knew they had specific names. Most of them are true, too. Well, all of them are lol.
I love the learning one. Probably because I hate school (well, I used to). Plus, a lot of the things you learn in high school you’re never going to use :/ I’m not going to go up to every triangle I see and preform the Trig process lol, so why learn it?! Unless I want to be a carpenter, of course.
ahaha the spelling one is so true too. I used to do that when I was into spelling (my English teacher was so strict) I used to act like I knew it all but would be embarrassed by having a mistake myself :P

hey there
i also now and again clean my website and take off the things that aren’t relevant anymore like the PNGs and stuff. Nowadays people use their own pictures for layouts not celebrities anymore.
Murphys law always happens to me lol i hate it but ye everything happens for a reason.
i love your friend Karens wording its so true /bounce
i was wandering how do you upload more smilies to your blog? mine are so out of date lol.

That’s awesome that James has blogged! Yay :)

Murphy’s Law is always a part of my life someway somehow. My friends love t point it out, but I don’t like to think about it too much…. I think too much already!

And I think it would be better to have fewer websites. I’ve always admired you for having so many. I’ve wanted to have many but I can’t imagine dividing my time between them all. Kudos to you for being able to balance it all!

I visited James blog too :)

And yes, Seb is right :> Expect the worst, but hope for the best :)

The laws you shared are just so awesome :)