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« Holy Flipper, Batman! | Main | Speaking Of John Roberts' Age »

Pretty Smart

A fascinating disquisition on stupidity:

We all recollect occasions in which a fellow took an action which resulted in his gain and our loss: we had to deal with a bandit. We also recollect cases in which a fellow took an action which resulted in his loss and our gain: we had to deal with a helpless person. We can recollect cases in which a fellow took an action by which both parties gained: he was intelligent. Such cases do indeed occur. But upon thoughtful reflection you must admit that these are not the events which punctuate most frequently our daily life. Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.

[Via Geekpress]

Posted by Rand Simberg at September 30, 2005 05:59 AM
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Comments

Never attribute anything to stupidity which can be equally well attributed to sheer malice.

Posted by MIKE SHUPP at September 30, 2005 04:46 PM

This reminds me of some trolls I could mention...

Posted by Kevin Parkin at October 1, 2005 02:33 AM

Out of curiosity I googled the name.

Apparently Prof. Cipolla died 13 Sept. 2000. One fewer I.

Regards,
Ric

Posted by Ric Locke at October 2, 2005 05:18 PM


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