M. Zimmerman? Paul Dickson? Allan L. Otten? Bob Garing? Futurama? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: The loudest and most voluble commentators often combine relentless criticism with meager praise. An unhappy worker crafted the following adage:
Nobody notices when things go right.
This statement is sometimes called “Zimmerman’s Law of Complaints”. Do you know anything about this Zimmerman? Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in the 1978 book “The Official Rules: The Definitive, Annotated Collection of Laws, Principles, and Instructions for Dealing with the Real World” compiled by Paul Dickson:1
Zimmerman’s Law of Complaints. Nobody notices when things go right. (M. Zimmerman. AO.)
The label “AO” pointed to additional information about the authorship of this rule. The book’s section about sources specified the following for “AO”:
AO Allan L. Otten of The Wall Street Journal. From his files and columns on the subject.
Thus, Paul Dickson received the rule from Allan L. Otten who credited M. Zimmerman. QI does not know the full first name of Zimmerman. The book contains only one rule/law from Zimmerman.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Observers have remarked on the scantiness of credit offered to stressed workers. For example, in 1913 U.S. journalist H. L. Mencken wrote the following about his efforts editing a magazine:2
What do you gain by constant rows and turmoil? You sweat and plan and waste your effort, and in the end you get the blame for everything that goes wrong and no credit at all when things go right. I was up against such a situation myself for three years, and I was a dam fool to hold out so long.
In 1979 “The Cleveland Press” of Ohio published a piece which included a discussion of Paul Dickson’s “The Official Rules” which had been released the previous year. The newspaper reprinted the law:3
Zimmerman’s Law of Complaints. Nobody notices when things go right.
In 1981 the “Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder” of Arroyo Grande, California printed an article containing a quotation from Bob Garing, a consulting engineer who worked for the local government:4
Garing noted a familiar maxim that nobody notices when things go right …
In 1999 Hugh Rawson published “If It Ain’t Broke: The Unwritten Laws of Life” which included the following passage:5
Finagle’s Law (“If anything can go wrong with an experiment, it will”); Gunter’s Laws of Air Travel (the first of which is “When you are served a meal aboard an aircraft, the aircraft will encounter turbulence”); and Zimmerman’s Law of Complaints (“Nobody notices when things go right”).
In 2002 the animated television series “Futurama” broadcast an episode titled “Godfellas” which included a conversation between the robot character Bender and a Godlike entity. A thematically related adage was spoken by the Godlike entity:6
Godlike Entity: When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.
In conclusion, M. Zimmerman deserves credit for the adage under examination based on the files of Allan L. Otten which were used during the compilation of Paul Dickson’s book “The Official Rules”. QI does not know any further biographical details about M. Zimmerman.
Image Notes: A stack of balanced rocks from Darien Attridge at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Helge Holden whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1978, The Official Rules: The Definitive, Annotated Collection of Laws, Principles, and Instructions for Dealing with the Real World by Paul Dickson, Quote Page 196 and 197, Delacorte Press, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1977, The New Mencken Letters by H. L. Mencken, Edited by Carl Bode, Letter To: Willard Huntington Wright, Date: December 14, 1913, Quote Page 42, The Dial Press, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1979 January 20, The Cleveland Press, Fair rules for stormy forecasts by Dick Goddard, Quote Page 11, Column 3, Cleveland, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1981 April 1, Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder, City Chief Changes Channel by John A. Read (News Editor), Start Page 1, Quote Page 20, Column 5, Arroyo Grande, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1999, If It Ain’t Broke: The Unwritten Laws of Life by Hugh Rawson, Section: Introduction, Quote Page vi, Penguin Books, London, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- Website: IMDb, Television Series: Futurama, Season 4, Episode 8, Episode Title: Godfellas, Episode Date: March 17, 2002, Episode Writers: Ken Keeler, Jeff Westbrook, Kristin Gore, Website description: Online database of information related to films, television series, and more. (Accessed imdb.com on May 9, 2026) link ↩︎