Travelling in and Murphy's law

I was running particularly late this morning and of course things started to go wrong: I had to wait for a train for some time where I get on (longer than normal), then when I changed they'd just suspended that line so I had to walk uphill for a few minutes to get a bus. After getting off the bus at the stop nearest to work it started to rain heavily resulting in the fact that I was fairly wet by the time I got to work. In all what should be a journey of one hour had turned into a 1 hour 45 minute journey.

It reminded me of Murphy's law:

Murphy's Law, often rendered as "If anything can go wrong, it will." was named after Captain Edward A. Murphy, an engineer. It seems rather negative but in fact it's a central tenet of "defensive design" a design methodology in which engineers attempt to make idiot-proof systems.

Here, along with Murphy's formulation, are seven other classic Murphyisms:

• If anything can go wrong, it will. (Murphy's Law)
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
• If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
• Whatever has happened wrong, is bound to happen again .... maybe even worse.

O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law

Murphy might seem like a bit of a pessimist with his "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." But O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law observes that, in fact, Murphy was an Optimist.