The Basic Laws of Stupidity
The Basic Laws of Stupidity as defined by Carlo M. Cipolla, Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley.
Who knew an economics professor could exist in the I quadrant. It is my recommendation that we begin labeling people appropriately. Start with yourself. If you're not an I or a B1, please stop coming to this site.
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2 comments:
JimBo, Your reference to the 'Laws of Stupidity' is challenged by the recent economic Nobel Prize winners for game theory. L of S states that Stupidty is one that make the situation worse for the other with no improvement for themselves. Game Theory states that one making the situation worse for everyone may cause the reaction of the other to stop competing / back off, thus making it better for the 'Stupid' person.
How many times have we seen the 'Stupid' person win. Maybe brains are not as important as instinct.
AltThink,
Although I'm not up on Game Theory, I do have a couple of thoughts. First, stupid people's harm of others is often just a side effect of their actions, although I'm sure there are stupid bandits that "swing the other way". Where (I'm assuming here) a person in a competative situation will intentionally choose to make the situation worse for their opponent. Secondly, making something worse for someone in a competative "game" situation isn't nearly as bad a causing real harm in daily living.
You may be on to something with the instict thing though. I've always said I'll take someone with common sense over someone with book knowledge so it may come down to how we categorize people (which is one of my favorite activities.)
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