Sod's law is a name for the axiom of "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" and "anything that can go wrong, will". "Toast will always land butter side down" is often given as an example of Sod's law in action. The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod"; a term for someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person.
The term is still used in Britain, though in North America the eponymous "Murphy's law" is more popular.
Sod's law is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"). For example, concepts such as "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" and "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions" are sometimes given as examples of Sod's law in action. This would broaden Sod's law to a general sense of being "mocked by fate". In these aspects it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981 is more upbeat - it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone be left unturned — not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluencable fate.
Some examples of "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" include:
- Ludwig van Beethoven's loss of hearing—loss of hearing is bad fortune for anyone, but it is Sod's law that it would happen to a brilliant composer.
- Adolph Coors III, who was allergic to beer, was the heir to the Coors beer empire—being allergic to beer is bad fortune for many, but it is Sod’s Law that someone allergic to beer would inherit a beer empire (and, due to a botched kidnapping attempt, die because of the empire's wealth, thus being killed by beer, if only indirectly).
- Lou Gehrig developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a paralyzing neurological disorder, but it is Sod's law that this would happen to an athlete. ALS is commonly called "Lou Gehrig's disease."
Some examples of "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions" include
- If you take your raincoat and umbrella with you, it will be sunny—any attempt you make to control your destiny (in this case how wet you get) will be thwarted by fate.
- You move to another city, only to meet and fall in love with someone from your home town.
Read more about Sod's Law: Parts
Famous quotes containing the words sod and/or law:
“The symbol of perpetual youth, the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams from the sod into the summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its spear of last year’s hay with the fresh life below. It grows as steadily as the rill oozes out of the ground.... So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All men, in the abstract, are just and good; what hinders them, in the particular, is, the momentary predominance of the finite and individual over the general truth. The condition of our incarnation in a private self, seems to be, a perpetual tendency to prefer the private law, to obey the private impulse, to the exclusion of the law of the universal being.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)