Muphry’s URL

Many of you are familiar with Muphry’s Law. It states, essentially, that any criticism of someone’s grammar, spelling, or usage (unless by a copy editor who’s been asked to do that sort of criticizing), will inevitably contain a grammar, spelling, or usage error.

I believe Muphry’s Law now has a sub-law. Call it Muphry’s URL.

Any blog post or online article bemoaning lack of dignity or intelligence in an aspect of modern life will have an embarrassing URL.

I have coined this law because of an article, written for the Harvard Business Review Blog Network by Kyle Wiens, founder of Dozuki and CEO of iFixit, “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.” It’s a fairly thorough, slightly scathing, exploration of the connections between correct language usage and good overall work performance. It is well-reasoned. It is level-headed. It uses correct grammar, spelling, and usage.

It has this in its URL: i_wont_hire_people_who_use_poo.html

This probably isn’t Wiens’ fault. He probably didn’t post the article himself; just wrote it, titled it, and sent it to HBR. Still, he and his unintentional poo have now contributed to the proliferation of meaningless Internet “laws”, and for that, I thank him.

editing