Something I once posted to a listserv in a fit of agony.  

Hmmmm. . .  advice, huh?  

    Murphy's law corollaries:  
1) =======
a) If you throw away the cardboard box right after installation, you'll 
    soon find that the unit is inappropriate for your needs and must be 
    returned for credit.  Without the box, it can't be returned for credit.  
   Management thinks you're an idiot.  

b) If you save the box for a year, the unit will work fine, with no 
    glitches.  Management thinks you're an idiot for keeping all those 
    boxes for a year.  
2) =======
a) If you tighten each of 37 screws on an access panel as you insert 
    them, you'll find, at screw #35, that you must loosen screws 1 through 
    34 in order to get screws 35, 36 and 37 in.  

b) If you put all the screws in half-way, then you just have to go 
    around a second time and tighten them  -  about 30% less work
    than (2a).  
3) =======
a) If you order your ISDN line with a due date of one day early, either:  
    1)  telco won't make the due date, and you'll miss the remote, or 
    2)  the ISDN line will have a provisioning error and won't work 
         with your codec and you'll miss the remote.  

b) If you order your ISDN with a due date of a week early, and go out 
    with the equipment 5 days in advance (because telco didn't make the 
    due date), it will work fine every time.  However, it will still not work 
    on the day of the remote, because somebody kicked a wire at the 
    demark the afternoon before, while installing a new phone in 
    another office in the same building.  

c) If you go out _again_ the day before, early enough in the day that 
    telco can get a wire person out to fix a problem like (3B), you'll 
    never have a problem like (3B).  Ever.  
Summary) =======
    The problem with Murphy's laws is a murky understanding of the 
mechanisms at work.  The equipment is aware, and the universe is 
backward compliant.  We control the actions of those who have 
already acted by our own actions after the fact.  The act of testing 
the circuit 5 days in advance ensures that the telco techs _will_ set 
all the dipswitches and program all the options correctly a week 
earlier.  Time is an illusion.  

    The idea is that we must show the universe that we give a damn 
by actually putting enough effort into things to make sure they work.  
The universe is cruel, and enjoys our frustration.  It is _just_ as 
frustrating to do all the extra work and _never have it be necessary_ 
as it is to _not_ do all the extra work and have things go wrong.  
The only difference is that doing the extra work gets the job done.  

    70 hour weeks, anyone?  

    Why did I compose this diatribe?  After 30 years doing 
radio engineering, (ML1a) just got me yesterday. . . As Todd 
sang, "Don't you every listen . . . don't you ever learn?!")