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Home > Categories > Books > Non-Fiction > Why the Toast Always Lands Butter Side Down. The Science of Murphy's Law review
The real scientific reasons why everything always goes wrong.
Start looking for Murphy's Law, and you will find it everywhere. Buses go round in threes, the queue you join always goes slowest, when your hands are full your nose starts to itch, you think of 10 important things to remember just as you are falling asleep...
Can there ever be a rational explanation?
The answers turn out to be one part scientific to three parts psychology. The worls has changed a lot in the last 4000 years, but our brains haven't/ So, again and again we find our reactions are just plain out of date.
Why do you take the same wrong turning every single time?
Why, when you lose something, do you keep looking in the same place over and over?
Why is it suddenly there the twentieth time you look?
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Review by: diogenes (Rob)
Dated: 15th of March, 2006
Ok, so it is well known that I am a bit of a nerd, and science books attract me like, well, add any metaphor you like here, but keep it clean - it is a family site.
Popular science books seem to be quite a popular genre at the moment, with many books covering many subjects: Genetics, biology, social sciences, nature ad nauseam. Psychology books seem to be thin on the ground, probably because of the perceived complexity of the science.
Robinson has done the seemingly impossible in presenting psychology in a catchy, readable book by examining "Murphy's Law", in its numerous guises and lengthy explainations, with a very helpful index of Murphy's laws, from why toast falls butter side down to why your queue always moves the slowest, and many, MANY more helpful explanations of Murphy's Law and how psychology relates to it.
It must have been a gutsy decision on the part of the author to write it, a gutsy decision on the part of the publisher to publish it and release it - and in my opinion, their gamble paid off. It really is a gambol through the field of psychology and the workings of the human brain.
It is well worth a read, and if you are anything like me, the book will be finished in hours not days or weeks. You will not regret buying this book, and even if you buy it for a friend, be assured that it will be gratefully received and read.
Random listing from 'Books'...
I, Geronimo Stilton, was amazed to find myself called back to the Kingdom of Fantasy for another adventure. Blossom, Queen of the Fairies, needed my help -- time itself was under threat!
Something evil was making the hands of the magical Tick Tock Timepiece spin faster and faster. It was causing Blossom to age at an alarming rate . . . and if she perished, so would the entire Kingdom of Fantasy! Holey cheese! It was up to me to restore time and harmony to the land.
Could I do it before the clock reached its final hour?
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"Common sense is just experience so ingrained, you use it almost without thinking. The worst thing is, we aren't born with it."
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