10th September 2010

Segal’s Law

Anon

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

Source: Arthur Bloch The Complete Murphy's Law 1991

The technologically sophisticated who want to be very sure of themselves can get around this problem by having three watches or whatever. Thus, some twenty years before democracy came to Russia, Wernher von Braun was interested to see that a Russian SST at the Paris air show had three gyroscopes. When he asked why, the pilot explained that three were needed in case of disagreement. “Ah I see,” said von Braun “sometimes you do go by majority opinion.” (personal communication 1975).

Zanuck’s Corollary. If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one of them is useless. If they disagree all the time, then both are useless (movie mogul Darryl Zanuck in the Observer, ‘Sayings of the Week’, October 23rd 1949).


Discussion of Segal’s Law

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