Basic Laws of Stupidity

Warning: Politically Incorrect

Carlo Cipolla’s book “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” (it’s a fast read) is in interesting book (buy yourself a copy). You might assume the book isn’t serious and is comedy, but it’s actually a very serious analysis of this problem (although it is pretty funny at several points). Carlo unfortunately passed away in the year 2000. He was a professor at the University of California (Berkeley). He was also an economic historian (an extremely important topic I intend to touch on more in future articles).

Warning: this article is “politically incorrect” as some people are offended at the idea that we might call other people stupid.

To understand this topic it is critical that you understand the definition of a stupid person: “A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.”

Let me emphasize that by rephrasing it. Stupid people harm other people while also harming themselves! This is a “lose – lose” interaction.

Image from RawPixel.com

To contrast this let’s define the other types of people.

Intelligent person – this person engages in interactions that benefit themselves while also benefiting the other person.

Bandit – this person engages in actions that benefit themselves but harm others.

Helpless – this person engages in actions that benefit others but harm themselves.

Naturally nobody falls into these categories 100% of the time. Sometimes our actions are intelligent, sometimes they are stupid or bandits or helpless. So where one falls is really an average of all the actions they do.

The first law is “Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation”.

This may seem amusing and easy to dismiss (after all, everyone else is stupid right?). But ponder this for a moment and take in the seriousness of it! These people harm society, and if they are in positions of power they can do serious harm!

Stupid people are more dangerous than bandits! Bandits do things that make sense, they can be predicted and defended against. Stupid people, by nature of the definition, can’t be predicted or defended against. They are simply toxic.

Cipolla goes on to point out that the percentage of stupid people is independent of their station. Any group, doctors, janitors, carpenters, professors, managers, assembly line workers, politicians, any group has the same percentage of stupid people. Well, I might tease that more politicians are stupid but that would be inaccurate. Actually I’d say politicians, as a group, have a disproportionate number of “bandits” (harming others while benefiting themselves).

Both Cipolla and I feel that stupidity has a genetic connection. However (formal) education is not associated with stupidity (or intelligence).

Okay, this is an amusing topic (and a good book), but how can being aware of this help us? If you want a better life then associate with more intelligent people and fewer stupid people. If you suspect you are stupid yourself, try slowing down and thinking before you take an action. Don’t do anything that doesn’t benefit yourself (and hopefully doesn’t harm anyone else).

In case you are curious, the other laws of Human Stupidity are:

• The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

• A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

• Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.

• A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

Commentary: Yes, people that wear masks are stupid because they don’t benefit, in fact they harm themselves and they also harm others! Mask mandates have been one of the worst mistakes in the history of humanity.

Feel free to flame me in comments. Remember: I believe in the importance of disagreement and discussion!