These are Cipolla’s five fundamental laws of stupidity:
1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a certain person (will) 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.
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Thanks for sharing, definitely saved his wikipedia article.
I also like the the graph showing the differences of people: stupid, intelligent, helpless, and bandits.
Love the perspective.
I am interested in the relationship between stupid people and narcissistic people. Narcissism hurts both society and that individual, as well.
It feels like many in leadership positions display narcissistic tendencies. I am not sure if we currently have adequate accountability for such people. If they are lucky, they benefit and then externalize those costs on society at large
