Sod's Law ~ the fine print

Nine times out of ten ~ not 50% of the time ~ when I try to plug in a USB cable or flash disk, I have it upside down. It's uncanny.

More examples of little things?

@fmf said
Nine times out of ten ~ not 50% of the time ~ when I try to plug in a USB cable or flash disk, I have it upside down. It's uncanny.

More examples of little things?

the law of large numbers will eventually even things out

@fmf said
Nine times out of ten ~ not 50% of the time ~ when I try to plug in a USB cable or flash disk, I have it upside down. It's uncanny.

More examples of little things?

By the time this thread reaches the end of page 1, you will have accumulated 6 thumbs down, from 3 readers. Its uncanny.

@fmf said
Nine times out of ten ~ not 50% of the time ~ when I try to plug in a USB cable or flash disk, I have it upside down. It's uncanny.

Seems to be a statistically accurate unilateral problem.

https://twitter.com/cordovatrades/status/1219336911799693318

@rajk999 said
By the time this thread reaches the end of page 1, you will have accumulated 6 thumbs down, from 3 readers. Its uncanny.

Wonderful!

@lemondrop said
the law of large numbers will eventually even things out

I have been noticing this phenomenon for years and years. Does your concept of "large numbers" mean I will, at some point, experience years and years of plugging in USB cables or flash disks and finding, consistent to an uncanny degree, that I have them the right way up?

@rajk999 said
By the time this thread reaches the end of page 1, you will have accumulated 6 thumbs down, from 3 readers. Its uncanny.

Does it really even matter?

-VR

@fmf said
I have been noticing this phenomenon for years and years. Does your concept of "large numbers" mean I will, at some point, experience years and years of plugging in USB cables or flash disks and finding, consistent to an uncanny degree, that I have them the right way up?

There is a parallel universe, one of an infinite number of parallel universi, when there is a parallel you who has gotten his USB cable the right way up 90% of the times.

@fmf said
Nine times out of ten ~ not 50% of the time ~ when I try to plug in a USB cable or flash disk, I have it upside down. It's uncanny.

More examples of little things?

-My toasted muffin will fall, jam side down 90% of the time if dropped.

-If a word or name is spelled with ie or ei in it, I'll guess the wrong spelling 90% of the time.

- When I first turn on the TV, it will be at the beginning of a commercial - ad cycle, guaranteeing maximum time wastage 90% of the time

- When I turn on the radio, the last 6 notes of my favorite song will be played, then fade away, not to be played again on that station until the next decade 90% of the time.

- When a news anchor asks a politician the simplest "yes" or 'no" question, they'll talk for a minimum of 3 min. NEVER pronouncing the words "yes" or "no" 90% of the time.

- Whenever I listen to ANY politician talk, I get a strong with the urge to drop them from the sky into a large Hyenas' 90% of the time.

@fmf said
I have been noticing this phenomenon for years and years. Does your concept of "large numbers" mean I will, at some point, experience years and years of plugging in USB cables or flash disks and finding, consistent to an uncanny degree, that I have them the right way up?

The things that become a problem to be solved intrude into your consciousness and so become over represented in your memory. You barely notice them going in the right way round as you think about other things.

I think this is mainly a psychological problem.

We tend to be aware of things not working as opposed to Things that work. If you plug in your USB device and it just works: no problem, no attention. If it doesn't work you have a problem and need to attend to it. So you keep it in memory.

It takes conscious effort to focus on the positive things as they happen, colloquially referred to these days as “mindfulness”, or “living in the moment”.

However USB cables are sentient beings sent by aliens to mess with us.

@relentless-red said
The things that become a problem to be solved intrude into your consciousness and so become over represented in your memory. You barely notice them going in the right way round as you think about other things.

This does not seem to be the case with my USB connections, however, because the pattern continued after I became conscious of it and started to pay attention to it every time I wanted to plug something in. Since I wrote this OP, for example, and mindful of it, I have plugged USB things into other things 8 times, and 7 of them were the wrong way up at first try. [This does not include USB Type C of course.]

@fmf said
This does not seem to be the case with my USB connections, however, because the pattern continued after I became conscious of it and started to pay attention to it every time I wanted to plug something in. Since I wrote this OP, for example, and mindful of it, I have plugged USB things into other things 8 times, and 7 of them were the wrong way up at first try. [This does not include USB Type C of course.]

Perhaps you are compelled to keep doing the same things.

@relentless-red said
Perhaps you are compelled to keep doing the same things.

I am compelled to keep plugging in USB things, yes. I am, of course, talking about when I try to do so blind. I obviously don't get them upside down when I check first.