Post #1119414

The Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity is a gem of quasisatirical genius by economist Carlo M. Cipolla. In summary: 1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. 2. The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. 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. 4. 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 always turns out to be a costly mistake. 5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. Corollary: A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit. A PDF, which has some typographical errors but fun illustrations can be found here: https://gandalf.fee.urv.cat/professors/AntonioQuesada/Curs1920/Cipolla_laws.pdf ; an ebook with a forward by Nassim Taleb can be found at most sources.