"Applied Rationality Training Regime" #22: Murphyjitsu 2

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January 22, we go on to Training Regime Day 22: Murphyjitsu 2 with the goal of raising Murphyjitsu to a higher level...figure that the Universe is against you, the laws of probability are being warped to halt your plans, and work out a plan to win anyway. 

umm.... Huh?

I admit this is one of the points where I would be asking an instructor for examples or other hints, because when I asked Sarah Som and Jim Pright, they looked as blank as spiders can look. And then I thought I'd try something really small. I'd try eating a piece of cake without making a mess, okay? It so happens that I like the texture that other people call dried-out, so there's even more of a risk of crumbs than usual, so I took a piece and actually cut it into pieces before putting it on to the plate. Then I thought about the fork I was about to get, and Sarah and Jim thought that if I stuck a fork in a piece it would split, and if I lifted a piece on the fork it would slide off. So I picked a toothpick out of the drawer beside the stove, and decided to eat my pieces of cake with that. Piece of cake, right? Ummmm.... the toothpick, unlike any other toothpick pulled from that drawer, was cracked. It broke. And Sarah and Jim, watching me from inside my head, pulled in their legs and rolled around and around and around, laughing at me. Yes, this really happened, this morning. I am not making it up. 

  So this evening I decided to have another piece, taking no precautions at all except to hold it in a napkin; this generated a wifely protest, but nothing went wrong. Nothing. The empirical result is clear: the gods were not bothering to be against me, unless I take precautions. Since today is the birthday of Francis Bacon, father of empiricism in science, I cannot go against the empirical result. I will bow to the gods and have some more precaution-free, anti-murphyjitsu, cake tomorrow.