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Defining Ignorance
and the Five Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity
Carlos Maria Cipolla, an economic historian rose to fame by
authoring the five fundamental laws of human stupidity:
1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates
the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent
of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person
or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or
even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential
of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time
anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or
associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably
constitutes a costly error.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person
there is.
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Five Types of People
Intelligent people who contribute to society and who leverage their contributions
into reciprocal benefits
Naive people who contribute to society but are taken advantage of by it (and
especially by the "bandit" [q.v.] sector of it); note, however, that extreme altruists
and pacifists may willingly and consciously (rather than "naive[ly]") accept a place
in this category for moral or ethical reasons
Bandits who pursue their own self-interest even when doing so poses a net
detriment to societal welfare
Stupid people whose efforts are counterproductive to both their and others'
interests
Helpless/ineffectual people (center)
Resources
http://www.cantrip.org/stupidity.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/may/04/research.highereducation
"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."
Frank Zappa