The "perversity principle" states that nature is hostile and life is a struggle against a malevolent enemy. From this we get the expression "Just my luck" when something goes bad. Murphy's Law ("If something can go wrong, it will") is thought of as an expression of the perversity principle.
The perversity principle is not truer than the Polyanna principle ("Everything will turn out all right"). What is true is that innumerable random things are happening and that only a few of them are favorable. In communication terms, the environment is noisy and very little of the noise is musical. Murphy's Law is quite true, but not because something is trying to get you.
Scientific and engineering experiments must be carefully designed to minimize the impact of such random effects.
With respect to your luck, you will find that you have both bad luck and good luck. If you pay attention to the good luck and are grateful for it, your bitterness at the bad luck will be diluted. Elementary statistics tells you that some people have runs of luck, good or bad, just as dice rolling produces limited runs of the same number. We all know Las Vegas stories.
Entropy in Human Affairs
Related to the random-noise element in life is the concept of entropy in human affairs. In the physical world energy trends to disorganization and randomness; the ultimate form is heat. In human affairs the same sort of thing happens because people are forgetful and have many motives, thoughts, and new inputs, not all consistent within the individual and certainly not within a group of individuals. Therefore programs, after being set in motion, tend to slow down and deteriorate.
If you understand this, then, without anger or frustration, you will steadily follow up, remind, persuade, and do whatever is necessary to keep the train moving along the planned track.
To Spin on a Dime
The associated requirement is the ability to spin on a dime: to discover that your train is on the wrong track and switch it to the right one. To rigid personalities this is a wrenching or even an impossible action. They cannot accept their own error and cannot change a plan. To other personalities, lighter on their feet, recognition of error, without guilt, and changing to a new course are part of the exhilaration of life.
Unforeseen Consequences
Every decision and every action have many consequences. Some are those you intended, and some appear to your surprise and either plea-sure or regret. We all have seen references to the "law of unforeseen consequences." One of the rationales for conservatism and inactivity is that there may be unforeseen bad consequences and that, as with random events, most consequences will be unfavorable. You can develop and exercise your powers of judgment and prediction, make or modify your decisions based on your prediction of their long-term consequences, and charge ahead. Or you can just lie there and die.
Parkinson's Laws
This is a good place to mention, again, Parkinson's laws of human and organizational behavior. They are somewhat cynical, but they show a great deal of insight into the real world. Among his laws are "Work expands to fill the time available for it" and "Organizations grow at a rate independent of the work done by them."
Conceit: The Destroyer
Conceit, or vanity, is the worst single source of failure we have seen. Conceited people think they know more and have better judgment than their supervisors and associates, even if they are new to the job and have less education and experience in the kind of work it calls for. They evade direction and ignore advice: they think they know better. They are unsuccessful. Conceit is sometimes accompanied by "machismo," arrogant aggressiveness, and sometimes also by a lack of ethics. The combination is ruinous to a career and, if not eliminated, to a company.
Attributes of the Successful Engineer
There are six attributes which you can cultivate in yourself if you try long and hard. They are:
- Judgment
- Insight
- Persuasiveness
- Ingenuity
- Will
- Prediction
Why were they designed as they are? What is wrong with them? How would you improve them? This is pure exercise-the world will not correct itself because you write in a suggestion-but if you are a committed design engineer, you will enjoy doing so and your own skills will be improved all the time. What products? Buildings, cars, appliances, TV, radio, and all their accessories, furniture, lamps, pencils, etc., etc.
If you are interested in organization, do the same with the social institutions and businesses around you: governments, restaurants, social parties, everything. The exercise is good for you, and your insight into the ways of the world will continue to improve.
Work on Yourself
The world is full of self-improvement books, and in a way this is one of them. Yet if you take them seriously and don't just sneer at them, you really will improve and so will your rate of success.
