Stupidity Law #3 - Deepstash

Stupidity Law #3

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

Cipolla called this one the Golden Law of stupidity. A stupid person, according to the economist, is one who causes problems for others without any clear benefit to himself.

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“An idea is something that won’t work unless you do.” - Thomas A. Edison

In 1976, Carlo M. Cipolla, professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley published an essay outlining the fundamental laws of a force he perceived as humanity’s greatest existential threat: Stupidity. We (still) grossly underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril.

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The basic laws of human stupidity

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

Stupidity Law #5

Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

And its corollary:

A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

We can do nothing about the stupid. The difference between societies that collapse under the weight of their stupid citizens ...

The 4 Phenotypes - The 3 Non-Stupid

This law also introduces three other phenotypes that Cipolla says co-exist alongside stupidity.

First there is the intelligent person, whose actions benefit both himself and others.

Then there is the bandit, who benefits himself at others’ expense.

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