Improbable Research: the laws of human stupidity
Curated from: theguardian.com
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
2 ideas
·2.59K reads
17
2
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
The basic laws of human stupidity
In 1976, Italian economist Carlo M Cipolla defined the laws as follows:
- Everyone always underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
- The probability that a specific person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
- A stupid person causes losses to another person or group of persons, while he does not gain anything and perhaps incurs losses.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid people. They repeatedly forget that it is always a costly mistake when you deal with and/or associate with stupid people.
209
1.6K reads
Countries on the rise vs those who are falling
Countries moving forward will have a percentage of stupid people but have an unusually high fraction of intelligent people who overcompensate for the stupid people. Declining nations have many non-stupid people whose behaviour strengthens the destructive power of their stupid fellow citizens.
Two unhelpful groups:
- "Bandits" in positions of power that they use for their own gain.
- Passive people out of power that sit do nothing as if they are helpless.
132
989 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Gunner J.'s ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
How to create a productive workspace at home
How to balance work and personal life while working remotely
How to maintain focus and motivation while working remotely
Related collections
Similar ideas
8 ideas
20 ideas
10 ideas
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates