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)
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