The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

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 Book Review

A little gem of humor and keen insight, Cipolla’s “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” is a must read for anyone wanting to live wisely with their fellow man. At first glance one might think the book is just a good-natured jab at humanity, much like Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” comics, but it is actually a serious assessment of how people are with one another in this far from perfect world.

Cipolla builds the book around four general observations:

1.      Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

2.     The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

3.     A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or 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 infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.

The book fleshes out these ideas thoughtfully and succinctly and includes helpful graphs to illustrate Cipolla’s ideas. As he states, this book is…

“the result of a constructive effort to detect, know, and thus possibly neutralize one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.”

Recommendation – I think this should be required reading for everyone before they graduate from high-school. Have some serious fun with this!

Mr. Wedel

 

Author – Carlo M. Cipolla

Publishing – Doubleday, New York, 2011

Genre - nonfiction

Pages - 82

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