Finagle's law

This adage is the generalized 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 favored among hackers is "The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum" (but see also Hanlon's razor). The label "Finagle's law" was popularized 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.

See also:

• Murphy's law
• Hanlon's razor
• Sturgeon's law
• Second law of thermodynamics