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| Beyond Murphy: Laws for Academics
- Clarke’s Law of Revolutionary Ideas: Every revolutionary idea—in science, politics, art, or whatever—evokes three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the three phrases: 1.) It is impossible—don’t waste my time; 2.) It is possible, but it is not worth doing; and 3.) I said it was a good idea all along.
- Potter’s Law: The amount of flak received on any subject is inversely proportional to the subject’s true value.
- Ross’s Law: Never characterize the importance of a statement in advance.
- The Rule of the Way Out: Always leave room to add an explanation if it doesn’t work out.
- Fourth Law of Revision: After painstaking and careful analysis of a sample, you are always told that it is the wrong sample and it doesn’t apply to the problem.
- Cohen’s Law: What really matters is the name you succeed in imposing on the facts—not the facts themselves.
* From Murphy’s Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! By Arthur Bloch. Los Angeles: Price, Stern, and Sloan, 1980.
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