I talked about the characteristics of high-IQ people in Jobs's eyes ("Jobs Thinks High-IQ People Are Like This"), and today we look at what are the characteristics of stupid people.
"The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" is a short essay written by the Italian economist Carlo M. Cipolla, the first edition of which was written in English and released in 1976. Initially, Cipolla deliberately distributed it only in secret among his friends, for the simple reason that the article was originally intended as a joke, and he wanted to interpret some serious topics in a light-hearted, less serious way.
The article is famous for its discussion of stupidity, and in discussing such a topic, Cipolla proposed a series of interesting theories, which were not only officially published, but also translated into multiple languages and distributed worldwide.
Here are the 5 basic laws of stupid people that he proposed in the article.
The first law: People always underestimate the number of stupid people active around them
Stupid people always exist, and people may seriously underestimate the number and influence of stupid people in society. If you look closely, people are repeatedly and often frightened by this fact:
Some people who were once considered rational and intelligent end up being found to be brazenly stupid.
People are always harassed by stupid people who suddenly appear at the most inconvenient and unlikely moments.
The second law: Whether or not a person is stupid has nothing to do with any other characteristics of that person
Stupidity is a human trait, like having big eyes or big legs. Therefore, regardless of people's level of education, stupidity is evenly distributed among all strata of society. Whether one is constantly active in elegant circles, or taking refuge among cannibals, whether you lock yourself in a monastery or are surrounded by a group of phDs, the truth is that you will always have to deal with the same proportion of stupid people.
In this pessimistic view, human beings are doomed to deal with stupidity. There is no safer place or solution to avoid it. The only thing you can do is accept this and live with it for the rest of your life.
The third law: a fool is a person who harms others and does not benefit himself
Stupid people cause losses to others and at the same time they don't get anything, and even they will suffer losses themselves.
This is the Golden Rule. Stupidity is not an IQ issue, it's a lack of relationship skills.
Humans can be divided according to their behavior, roughly divided into four basic categories:
The helpless
The intelligent
The bandit
The stupid
Corresponding to the four quadrants of H, I, B and S in the figure below.
Suppose that one of the two people in the figure is named Tom and the other is called Jack, if Tom takes an action and suffers losses while bringing benefits to Jack, then Tom belongs to the H quadrant, and his behavior is hopeless. If Tom's actions give him his own gain, but also jack's gain, then Tom belongs to the I quadrant, his actions are wise, he is a smart man. If Tom's actions bring him gains but jack suffers losses, then Tom belongs to the B quadrant, and his actions are robbery. If Tom's actions both cost himself and hurt Jack's interests, then Tom falls into the S Quadrant, his actions are stupid, and he's stupid.
Stupid people's behavior is irrational and incomprehensible, but that doesn't mean their actions don't have an impact on people's lives. Instead, people are likely to remember those who have caused difficulties, setbacks, and pain. Some people who, through their illogical behavior, not only bring harm to others, but also to themselves, are super fools. This also leads to the fourth law.
Fourth Law: The potential harm of stupid people is often underestimated
Dealing with and/or mingling with stupid people at any time, place, and circumstance can always be a costly mistake. Stupid people are in mortal danger because it is difficult for sane people to imagine and understand what stupid actions they would do. In other words, stupid people's behavior always catches smart people off guard, because they often don't play cards according to common sense, and their behavior is illogical and cannot be understood logically.
Therefore, it is easy for people to be hurt by underestimating the harm of stupid people, and they will always be affected by the unpredictable stupid behavior of stupid people.
People often have the illusion that stupid people will only cause harm to themselves and will not affect others, thus reducing their vigilance, which is actually a misunderstanding, which is to confuse stupidity and helplessness.
Fifth Law: Stupid people are the most dangerous type of people
This law is a natural consequence of the previous laws. Of the four categories of people mentioned in the Third Law, stupid people are more dangerous than robbers. Common sense tells us that smart people, no matter how hostile they are, at least behave logically, and therefore they are predictable. In contrast, stupid people are not, their uncertainties and instabilities will be more, and this subtle difference makes stupid people more frightening than smart people.
A stupid person will appear for no reason, without any plan or scheme, at the most unlikely time and place to cause you trouble. You don't have a rational way to judge whether, when, how, and why stupid people appear because stupid people don't behave according to the rules of reason.
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