John Stapp - Stapp's Law

Stapp's Law

Stapp was an inveterate collector of aphorisms and adages, kept a logbook of such, and the practice spread to his entire working group. He published a collection of these in 1992. Witty and charismatic and thus popular with the press and his staff, Stapp's team in particular, and its workplace subculture is also the clear originating source for the ubiquitous principle known as Murphy's law. Stapp was its popularizer and probably framed its final form, first using the soon-to-be widespread term in his first press conference about Project MX981 in the phrase, "We do all of our work in consideration of Murphy's Law" in a nonchalant answer to a reporter. It was his team that, within an adage-filled subculture, and while using a new device developed by reliability engineering expert Major Edward Murphy, coined the euphemistic phrase and began to use it in the months prior to that press conference. When the unfamiliar "Law" was clarified by a subsequent follow-up question, it soon burst into the press in various diverse publications, and got picked up by commentators and talk programs.

Stapp is credited with creating Stapp's Law (or Stapp's Ironic Paradox) during his work on the project. It states "The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."