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Wed 21 Jun, 2006 01:13 pm
This is kinda like Murphy's Law, but with a twist. It goes something like:
The possibility of something going wrong increases with the urgency of a given task.
This was brought to mind the other day when I was trying to get my kid to a class on time. It was someplace I'd never been, Yahoo Maps said it would take 11 minutes. I decided to give it 15 minutes to be safe. Fine.
I hit every single red light and a couple of temporary construction problems and ended up taking a good 25 minutes. Argh! We actually walked in about 5 minutes late -- I'd budgeted time for car-to-class, too, and we ran -- but it was really annoying.
The next day I budgeted half an hour, and it took us 9 minutes. 9!! Same route, same time of day, same everything. But when we had plenty of time, we breezed through all the green lights and got there in a jiffy. (Only to stand outside the classroom and wait and wait and wait...)
Is this already a law? What should it be called, if not?
The ratio of time required (TR) to level of urgency (LU) is inversely proportional.... or something like that. This is known as the TRULY law of human dynamics.
I have something similar going with the Ossobuco Law, which states that there as an inverse relationship between level of expectation(LE) and fulfillment(LF).
That one is complicated. If you worry about something, it will not happen. If you don't even consider worrying about it, it will. The first is more often true than the second.
THAT law! I hate it.
This is why you must never show a sign of agitation and pressure in front of your printer or photocopier.
But...I think they have a keen sense of smell......they know anyway.
The Printer Malfunction Variation of the LELF law is similar to the Modem Futz Dilemma... that is,
Any Show of Concern will result in a Matter of Serious Computer Impairment, while Visible Lack of Concern Will Assure Easy Fix.
Heh! Murphy's Law wasn't even written by Murphy.
Soz, those laws grow in geometric importance as the number of children increases.
There are evil spirits living in every computer. If I enter a store, the employees start swearing as their computers immediately start having problems.
Deb is right, the spirts, those little buggers, have a keen sense of smell.
Prospectors Law--" rock sample weights are inversely related to the distance from car"
There are two related laws in archaeology.
1) the most important find of the excavation season will be found on the last day of excavation
2) The most important find on a site will be found by the person least competent to excavate it.
I just read a book about time management. The author suggested that whenever you have to be somewhere by a certain time, you should leave an extra fifteen minutes early.
So if you think it will take you twenty minutes to get there, you should leave thirty five minutes early. If you leave an extra fifteen minutes early -- you will probably get there right on time.
The authors took the idea from the former football coach Vince Lombardi, who used to insist that his players and staff arrive fifteen minutes early for practice or meetings. It became known as "Lombardi time."
I've been using this fifteen minute early philosophy and I have to admit it works. I always get to wherever I need to be early or at least on time.
Acquiunk wrote:There are two related laws in archaeology.
1) the most important find of the excavation season will be found on the last day of excavation
2) The most important find on a site will be found by the person least competent to excavate it.
So true! I did a dig once. I signed on for 4 weeks and was invited back for the next 4 weeks as free labor. The last day or two of the first 4 weeks we found a large, nicely intact kiva with a couple of pieces of potery and a well-defined hearth. Until then it was rubble walls, a cool wind-break, and a lot of shards. The last week of the second 4 weeks we found a little funeral pitt - the high school kid struck and broke a hole in the skull. Oopsies.
Oh! And about that law..... I try to give myself plenty of time to get from point a to point b. I live in an urban setting, it has lots of one-ways, and it seems that every day is garbage collection day in some neighborhood between here and work. Today was a late day, it was early release from school and I got stuck behind 2 garbage trucks.
Yeah, I know what sozobe means. It seems like whenever you're pressed for time, the whole universe seems to be working against you, resisting you.
It's like wading through the ocean with the waves pressing against you.
But I've found that fifteen extra minutes of "Lombardi time" really seems to work. It seems like no matter what the conditions are, I at least get there on time!
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