Oct 10 2004
The Math of Murphy’s
From http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/10/10/154224.shtml?tid=133&tid=14, here’s how to compute and interpret Murphy’s Law.
((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10))
In the calculation, five factors have to be assessed: urgency (U), complexity (C), importance (I), skill (S) and frequency (F), and each given a score between one and nine. A sixth, aggravation (A), was set at 0.7 by the experts after their poll.
“So, if you haven’t got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it.”