Murphy's Law vs Positive Thinking

(Half-written by Github copilot, so the tone is a bit weird)

Murphy's law is actually quite interesting.

It is generally stated as such: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

It has been applied to many different situations, but it is most commonly used in engineering and technology. It is to some extent an empirical statement that things tend to go wrong, and it is also a rather uncontroversial observation of the simple fact that the more complex a system is, the chances of something going wrong increases as the scale of the operations increases.

However, there is also a more esoteric interpretation of Murphy's law, i.e. things will actually go wrong even more often than what might be expected from a simple frequentist probabilistic analysis. In short, "I have really bad luck."

There are many possible ways one might try to avoid Murphy's law. The first is to minimize the chances of things going wrong by making sure that the system is as simple as possible, and that all possible failure modes are dealt with. This is the approach taken by most engineers and scientists, and it probably the most effective way to avoid Murphy's law.

However, those who believe in mind over matter might also try to avoid Murphy's law by simply thinking positively and expecting things to go right. This is the approach taken by many people who believe in the power of positive thinking.

But does positive thinking really work? Can you really avoid Murphy's law by simply thinking positively and expecting things to go right? If you believe in the power of positive thinking, then you might think that the answer is yes. But why doesn't it work? Why do things still go wrong even when you think positively?

The answer is that the very idea of "positive" thinking is flawed. If you need to think "positively" to avoid Murphy's law, then you are already assuming that things will go wrong. In other words, you are already expecting things to go wrong, and you are trying to counteract that expectation by thinking positively. But this is a self-defeating strategy, because you are still expecting things to go wrong, and you are still giving power to the idea that things will go wrong.

What can we do then? Remember that the law of free will is a universal law, and that we have the power to choose our own destiny. If you want to avoid Murphy's law, then you need to take physical action to make sure that things go right. You need to take responsibility for your own actions, and you need to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to make sure that things go right. Unsurprisingly, this approach converges with the boring materialist approach.

Those who believe in the power of positive thinking generally forget that we live in a physical universe, and there is a reason for that. Minds can move matter, but the accepted laws here is that we interact with the physical world through our physical bodies. If you want to avoid Murphy's law, then you need to take physical action. As they say, "actions speak louder than words."

In a sense, Murphy's law is a device where it gives us a choice. We can either accept that things will go wrong, and take physical action to make sure that they don't.

As a rule of thumb, it is obviously a good idea to maintain a generally positive vibe, but once you consider a negative outcome as a possibility, it is on you to take action to minimize the possibility of it eventually happening.