Finagle's Law

humour The generalised or "folk" version of Murphy's Law,

fully named "Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives" and usually

rendered "Anything that can go wrong, will". One variant

favoured among hackers is "The perversity of the Universe

tends toward a maximum".

The label "Finagle's Law" was popularised by SF author Larry

Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of

asteroid miners; this "Belter" culture professed a religion

and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god

Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy.

[Jargon File]

(1995-12-14)