Pourquoi la tartine tombe toujours du côté du beurre : la loi de Murphy expliquée à tous

by Richard Robinson

Des lois scientifiques et les phénomènes qu'elles engendrent expliqués avec humour : le fonctionnement des sens, la formation des souvenirs, la logique floue...

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Popular Science, Humor

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

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Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

scientific but in a silly way

[Patrice Blanchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une étrange livre sur les biais cognitifs qui parvient à parler du concept dans jamais citer le terme. A force de vulgariser et de donner des exemples amusants, l'auteur a oublié de mettre le minimum d'explications théoriques. On retrouve une pléthore d'exemples qui ne sont là que titre Illustration, ça manque cruellement d'explications.
L'auteur ou le traducteur utilisent des termes comme "science naïve" qui n'existent simplement pas.
En gros un livre distrayant qui aurait gagné a privilégier un peu plus de sérieux pour gagner en crédibilité.

[Kyle O'Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was interesting. Right away, it acknowledges that Murphy's Law (not really a scientific law, by the way. More of a series of humorous sayings pretending to be scientific law) really lies more in how selective the human attention span and memory is. My copy has the subtitle "The scientific reasons why everything goes wrong" instead of "The science of Murphy's Law." If you enjoy a book full of illustrative examples, this book is for you.

[Sharnice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Examples are scattered and not organized, was having a hard time finding connection between two consecutive sub chapters...
The explanation is good though, the author explained some common scenarios which we will have thought "if things can go bad, they will go bad" in a scientific way, and how our brain is actually playing tricks with us

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

It turns out that bad things happen because we still have a stone-age brain that is not designed to cope with the modern world. A scientific approach to the question resulted in some funny bits, some bits worth reading again and some really boring bits.

[Rogival Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is short. Multiple example. Most of our frustrations can be explained with the brain interpretation of several physics factor or emotions. We also understand the evolution of human beings and the development of typical answers to specific situations. Nice to read.

[Mtod12 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very interesting for various trivia and the known science behind it.

[Lightwhisper · Rating 1 out of 5]

Algo sobre como a lei de Murphy nos envolve e como nós é que a fazemos existir. Interessante aí mas não como é expresso no livro.

[Rui · Rating 1 out of 5]

Começa com interessantes explicações sobre o funcionamento do nosso cérebro e comportamento para acabar em explicações banais sem qualquer enriquecimento.

[Miguel Antunes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to say here. I finished the book but it feels like it had no impact on my way of thinking, still interesting though.

[Kateřina Boušková roz. Zlesáková · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kniha je souborem biologických a fyziologických poznatků týkajících se fungování lidského těla a společnosti. Na těchto poznatcích pak autor vysvětluje "Murphyho zákony".

[Kathy Normansell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished this book only because it was for my book club. All of us rated it a zero

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Robinson’s delightful book is an exploration of the science behind Murphy’s Law (the truism that can be roughly stated as “if something can go wrong, it will”) – not just the simple probability tricks that fool our brains with such consistency – if we were any good at probabilities, there wouldn’t be a casino business – but also the many ways our brains can fool us.

Robinson begins by giving a little background to the brain itself, then moves onto our interactions with the world, and the misunderstandings that arise from them. We learn, for example, the way our eyes (and other senses) can so easily be fooled. Robinson misses one trick when talking about the way the moon appears so much bigger in the “real world” than it does on a photograph – the most amazing fact here is just how small the apparent size of the moon really is, about the same as the hole in a piece of punched paper, held at arms length (if you don’t believe it, try looking through such a hole at the moon) – but he still manages to point out just how easy our senses are to fool (and hence, sadly, why eye witnesses and anecdotes are pretty useless for either testimony in court, or scientific proof).

After taking on the senses, Robinson takes us through the faulty interference of memory, the way our natural tendency to look for patterns and connections can result in misunderstanding and “naive science”, often suggesting causality that doesn’t exist, emotional distortion (rather too much on this) and the impact of social context (it’s all “their” fault), which section would have been better if it didn’t perpetuate Richard Dawkins’ meme concept, popular with the general public, but largely ignored in scientific circles. A final section considers the “pure science” of Murphy’s law – that’s to say the maths, physics and more that mean that things go wrong in the real world even without a misunderstanding from our brains – for example, busses really do tend to bunch up and travel in small packs. All this is helped along by short quotes that reflect Murphy’s law in the particular arena under consideration.

The whole thing is neatly illustrated with a series of cartoons by Kate Charlesworth. These are fun, though both the illustrations and some of Robinson’s wording make it difficult to decide whether this book is aimed at adults or older children – we think it’s a great crossover title that can be appreciated by both.

Overall, entertaining and painlessly educational – what more can you ask of popular science – it’s great as a present, or as a refreshing read to take away the pain of a hard day at work.

[Star Shining Forever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting and fun book! Written by a scientist, it goes over the reality of perceived phenomena like Murphy's Law, which says that if anything can go wrong, it will. It separates the truths and the myths and provides insights as to what we think and why. There's even as short part at the end with the math, science, and technical explanations. Learned some things and had fun doing it!

[Agnes Fontana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce livre prétendument consacré à la Loi de Murphy, aurait du plus adéquatement s'appeler " comment la manière dont notre cerveau perçoit et traite les informations nous induit en erreur", ou, comme on aurait dit au XVIIème siècle, "le Démon de l'erreur". La référence insistante à la loi de Murphy "et c'est là que Murphy pointe son nez" est plutôt irritante et semble traduire le souhait de coller à la commande de l'éditeur.
A part cela, ce livre est une compilation plaisante d'informations scientifiques sur la manière dont nous percevons le monde moderne avec un cerveau façonné au Paléolithique, avec une capacité d'assimilation de l'information restée trop étroite pour toutes les données dont nous sommes bombardés, et une persistance des catégories archaïques. Il expose le rôle et le fonctionnement des différentes partis du cerveau, notamment l'amygdale et sa mémoire affective, et décline ensuite comment plein d'erreur et d'impressions fausses découlent de tout cela. Il se termine avec quelques explications tirées de science dure sur quelques phénomènes qui, effectivement, sont observables (les bus qui arrivent par trois, le rideau de douche qui colle à la peau). Le mélange de données scientifiques et de remarques humoristiques est un peu déstabilisant au début, mais les lecteurs américains ont sans doute plus l'habitude. La palme revient à cette citation l'Allen Ginzberg "vous ne pouvez pas gagner. Vous ne pouvez pas terminer ex aequo. vous ne pouvez pas quitter la partie". Et la remarque de l'auteur selon laquelle trois systèmes de croyances, le capitalisme, le socialisme et le mysticisme, s'attaquent chacun à l'un de ces trois constats.

[Arturo Javier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este libro es exactamente el tipo de libro que debería encantarme, pero la verdad es que me irrita muchísimo. No tengo ningún problema con el aspecto "técnico" del libro, por así decirlo. Creo que el autor está en lo correcto la mayor parte del tiempo. Lo que me molesta muchísimo es su actitud hacia los seres humanos, hacia nuestro cerebro del paleolítico, hacia nuestros atavismos de la evolución. ¡El autor no nos baja de "científicos ingenuos"! Sí, sufrimos de disonancia cognitiva. Sí, nuestra psicología del sentido común es chapucera. ¿Y qué? En lo que Robinson no repara ni una sola vez es que, a pesar de todas nuestras fallas, a pesar de que una y otra vez somos el target de la ley de Murphy, de alguna forma hemos logrado que las cosas funcionen más o menos bien.

[Lisa Galvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Psychology, science and "old school" wisdom blended together well with enough humor to make it a worthwhile read that anyone could grasp. After all, everyone is subjected to those cruel Laws of Murphy. It while the structure flowed really well, it was also easy to pick up and put down at a moment's notice, making it work really well for those short breaks during work.

I highly reccomend it!

[Manfred Moonlight Ackermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre qui explique le pourquoi du comment on en arrive à cette fameuse 'loi' de l'emmerdement maximum.

On a quelques arguments qui permettent de mieux comprendre cela, et qui sont parfaitement sérieux (assez étonnant, on s'attend à de la déconne permanente, eh non pas forcément), et ensuite beaucoup d'exemples étayent cette loi.

Un livre vraiment intéressant, et très divertissant qui vaut son achat, ou tout du moins sa lecture !!!

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of Murphy's Laws that this book misses is "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"...such as the title of the book. Obviously, most of Murphy's Laws can be explained away just by thinking about it logically......dur! The answer to most is attention, which is mentioned very, very briefly. The majority of the book is 'evolution, evolution, evolution'....blah blah blah.

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh? I am not much of a pessimist and for me the world is always a shining beacon of opportunity and enjoyment. So this is an unnecessary psychological approach to in my opinion an unimportant subject. My bad for reading it.

[Nenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

#50 a book you started but never finished
2015 Reading Challenge

[Jamie Garofalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

All about Murphy's law and other nuances of life. Read it!

[Auntie Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chissà cosa mi aspettavo... Il libro non è altro che una sintesi di come lavora il nostro cervello e di sommarie spiegazioni alle più banali leggi di Murphy. Mi è piaciuto? A tratti, direi.

[Steven Eisenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a lesson in the physics of common sense. A short read, if yo like this stuff. I do.

[Calvin Cochran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read.

[Wee Jiawei · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting