Why things don't happen as planned

Jon Elster

pp. 248-257

in: Nordal Åkerman (ed), The necessity of friction, Heidelberg, Physica, 1993

Abstract

This is an essay about thwarted plans and frustrated expectations. The experience that thing's don't always work out as planned is a common one. However, instead of just citing Murphy's law or the inherent malevolence of the universe, we need to understand the structure of frustration. Sometimes, things go wrong simply because we make a mistake, such as stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake. I am concerned here with more systematic, recurrent sources of frustration. Some of these are located within the individual, some of them in the interaction among different individuals.