--- title: "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" description: "My notes and thoughts while reading The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity." --- > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://blog.sheerluck.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity This is a collection of my notes while reading **The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity** by Carlo M. Cipolla. It is not a review or a comprehensive summary. My goal is simply to document the ideas that stood out to me and my understanding of them. ## Foreword by Nassim Nicholas Taleb This foreword made me chuckle quite a bit (though I admit I laugh easily). I recommend reading it before continuing. > **Note:** Despite the name, these "laws" are not scientific laws. The book is a humorous essay rather than an empirical study, so it's best read as a thought-provoking framework rather than established scientific fact. ## Introduction The author says that human life has always had problems. Struggles are a part of life for every living being. But humans have one extra problem: the harm caused by other humans. He believes that a lot of this harm comes from stupid people. They are not organized and have no leader, but their actions still create a big negative impact on society. The author also says this book is not meant to be negative or hopeless. Its purpose is to understand stupidity better so we can recognize it and reduce the damage it causes. ## The First Basic Law > Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation Author says that no matter how high our estimate is, the actual number is usually higher. We often think someone is intelligent, but later they do something surprisingly stupid. We also keep running into stupid people at the worst possible time and place. Because of this, the author says it is impossible to give an exact number of stupid people in society. Instead, he uses the symbol $\sigma$ (sigma) to represent their fraction in a population ## The Second Basic Law > The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person According to the author, stupidity is not linked to education, intelligence, wealth, social status, gender, race or profession. It is something people are born with and is spread evenly across every group in society. The author claims that every group be it workers, students, professors and even Nobel Prize winners has roughly the same proportion of stupid people. He uses this to argue that no group is free from stupidity. So, no matter where you go or who you spend time with, you should expect to find the same percentage of stupid people. Combined with the first law, this also means that the number of stupid people will always be more than you expect ## Technical Interlude Before introducing the third law, the author explains a simple way to understand human actions. Every action has two outcomes: one for ourselves and one for others. We may gain or lose from an action and at the same time other people may also gain or lose. Even choosing not to act can affect others because it can create a missed opportunity. To explain this, the author uses a graph. The **X-axis** shows our gain or loss and the **Y-axis** shows the other person’s gain or loss. This helps classify different kinds of human behaviour. The author also points out that we should judge another person’s gain or loss from **their perspective**, not our own. What feels like a benefit to us may actually be a loss for someone else. ## The Third (And Golden) Basic Law > 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 loss Before this law, the author divides people into four types based on how their actions affect themselves and others: - Intelligent: Their actions benefit both themselves and others. - Helpless: Their actions benefit others but cause a loss to themselves - Bandit: Their actions benefit themselves by causing a loss to others - Stupid: Their actions case a loss to others without bringing any benefit to themselves and they may even end up harming themselves ![types of people](/images/tblohs-first.png) The third law defines a **stupid person** as someone who causes a loss to others while gaining nothing from it and sometimes even harming themselves in the process. This is what makes stupidity different from selfishness or crime. A bandit acts for personal gain, but a stupid person creates a damage without any benefit. According to the author, this makes stupid people the most unpredictable and dangerous type. ## Frequency Distribution of Human Types The author says that most people are **not consistent**. A person may act intelligently in one situation and helplessly or selfishly in another. So, people are classified based on their **overall pattern of behaviour**, not on a single action. The only exception is **stupid people**, who tend to behave stupidly in almost every situation. The author also explains that **bandits** are not all the same. A *perfect bandit* gains exactly as much as others lose. But most bandits either gain more than the damage they cause (making them closer to intelligent people) or more commonly, gain less than the damage they cause(making them closer to stupidity). Unlike bandits, **stupid people are concentrated in one category**. Most of them repeatedly harm others without gaining anything themselves. Some even harm themselves while hurting others. The author calls these people **super-stupid**, as they create losses for everyone involved, including themselves. ## Stupidity and Power The author says that not all stupid people are equally dangerous. Some cause only small problems, while others create huge damage that affects entire societies. Their ability to cause harm depends on two things: how naturally stupid they are and how much power they have. ![stupidity and power](/images/tblohs-second.png) A stupid person in an important position such as a politician, military leader, bureaucrat or other authority can cause far greater damage than an ordinary person. The author also explains that throughout history, different systems like class, case, religion, political parties, bureaucracy and even democracy have allowed stupid people to reach positions of power. Since stupidity exists in every group of people, some of these individuals will always end up in a leadership role, increasing their ability to harm others. ## The Power of Stupidity The author explains that the real danger of stupid people is their **unpredictability**. We can usually understand the motives of selfish or dishonest people because they act for personal gain. Their actions are rational, so we can often predict them and prepare for a response. A stupid person is different. They may harm others without any reason, benefit or clear plan. Because their actions do not follow logic, they are almost impossible to predict. This makes it difficult to defend against them or respond effectively. According to the author, this unpredictability is what makes stupid people more dangerous than people who act out of self-interest. ## The Fourth Basic Law > 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 What is more surprising is that even intelligent people and bandits make the same mistake. They often think they can predict, control or even use a stupid person for their own benefit. According to the author, this never works because stupid people do not act logically. Their behaviour is unpredictable, making them impossible to control. Trying to work with or take advantage of a stupid person usually ends up causing losses. ## Macro Analysis and The Fifth Basic Law > A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit A bandit harms others for personal gain, so wealth is simply transferred from one person to another. Society as a whole does not lose, it only changes who has the wealth. A stupid person is different. They harm others without gaining anything themselves. This creates a net loss for everyone, making society poorer overall. The author also explains that every society has about the same proportion of stupid people. The difference between a successful society and a failing one is how much influence these people have. Successful societies have enough intelligent people to limit damage caused by stupidity. Failing societies allow stupid people to become more active and influential, while the number of intelligent people decreases. As a result, the destructive effects of stupidity grow, leading to the decline of society. ## My Thoughts I think the author's framework is useful because it forces us to think about outcomes rather than intentions. Whether the framework is literally true is less important than whether it helps explain situations we've observed. I don't agree that stupidity is necessarily an innate trait distributed equally across all groups because the book doesn't provide evidence for that claim. However, I do think the third law offers an interesting way to distinguish irrational harmful behaviour from ordinary selfishness. Source: https://blog.sheerluck.dev/posts/book-notes/the-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/index.mdx