Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

zoon.cc

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 91 posts

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#21

Post by worldsayshi »

alain_gilbert wrote: post #17
kdamken wrote: post #15

What makes a person stupid? If I have a friend who squanders their money while I save and build up wealth, are they stupid? What if they have a much happier and more fulfilling life than I do? If you have a difficult job (like brain surgeon), but are terrible at most of the other parts of your life, does that make you stupid? Are slow readers stupid? What if they invent a product or start a business that makes them a…

From the text: "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 losses." I think all of your examples give the person some gain, or causes good to others.

I find it very difficult to buy the idea that a person is characteristically stupid. People does things like described by the definition all the time. It's called mistakes. Some people are ignorant sure. But my guess is that even the most ignorant person is not an idiot most of the time.

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#22

Post by yetihehe »

worldsayshi wrote: post #21
alain_gilbert wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the text: "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 losses." I think all of your examples give the person some gain, or causes good to others.

I find it very difficult to buy the idea that a person is characteristically stupid. People does things like described by the definition all the time. It's called mistakes. Some people are ignorant sure. But my guess is that even the most ignorant person is not an idiot most of the time.

This is stated in article too.

> When confronted for the first time with the Third Basic Law, rational people instinctively react with feelings of skepticism and incredulity.

> Most people do not act consistently. [...] We can calculate for each person his weighted average position in the plane of figure 1 quite independently from his degree of inconsistency.

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#24

Post by srrge »

I feel this is one thing that differentiate the European political cultures and the US political culture.

In Europe I feel we do better understand that people are stupid (in general). They won't insure their health, they'll kill you for $50, they won't pay the price for an education.

That's why we don't have guns, we have mostly free healthcare and universities.

In the US, I feel you guys hope or would like that people would NOT be stupid and do smart things on a general basis.

But that's not the case.

What if all side of the US political system could agree on this? People are fucking stupid, let's make more rules and put more systems and programs in place that take this into account.

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#25

Post by ian0 »

red75prime wrote: post #19
ian0 wrote: post #7

There are lots of strategies which are rational, non-stupid, in a specific context but irrational & stupid if context is expanded. Eg. Paying it forward by advising a sociopath, working on something interesting despite it being damaging, not being religious because its illogical even if being religious makes you feel/act better. A better general definition of stupidity as a non-rational strategy would be "taking an a…

> not being religious because its illogical even if being religious makes you feel/act better. It's not exactly a choice. I for the life of me just can't start believing one or another unfounded story, because there's no basis to choose which story to believe. Even taking into account prevalent beliefs of the society as a basis, I can't imagine what kind of mental stunt I need to perform to promote probability of the…

I guess it doesn't make you feel better then :) Its subjective, but some can take comfort in rituals and beliefs that rely on a certain amount of doublethink.

PS I don't think you need to compare and contrast, just go with say an interesting one like Jedi (lots in England according to the census) and see how it goes!

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#26

Post by mannanali413 »

This manual, as I may call it, is hilarious. But its usefulness cannot be discounted. The first rule while dealing with people is "Individuals are who they are." And if in the past you had an encounter with someone who fits the label of "stupid", as described by these laws, then there is a high chance that the person is going to display stupidity even in the foreseeing future.

As a friend of mine once remarked in Hindi-- "Once a chutiya, always a chutiya." (Translation ) "Once a stupid, always a stupid"

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#27

Post by leaveyou »

srrge wrote: post #24

I feel this is one thing that differentiate the European political cultures and the US political culture. In Europe I feel we do better understand that people are stupid (in general). They won't insure their health, they'll kill you for $50, they won't pay the price for an education. That's why we don't have guns, we have mostly free healthcare and universities. In the US, I feel you guys hope or would like that peop…

I see your point but it also implies that Europe breeds the stupid while US allows them to extract themselves from the gene pool.. not a very nice perspective for me (as an European)

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#28

Post by ian0 »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #9
ian0 wrote: post #7

There are lots of strategies which are rational, non-stupid, in a specific context but irrational & stupid if context is expanded. Eg. Paying it forward by advising a sociopath, working on something interesting despite it being damaging, not being religious because its illogical even if being religious makes you feel/act better. A better general definition of stupidity as a non-rational strategy would be "taking an a…

"Obviously its difficult in many scenarios to grasp the larger context, but if we promoted this definition we would as a society optimise for core ethics and be less apt to being manipulated by a minority." Doesn't this mean that you already believe that we need to be first manipulated by the minority that holds the definition you advocate, since that definition is not already generally held? And if your definition i…

Good point.

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#29

Post by srrge »

leaveyou wrote: post #27
srrge wrote: post #24

I feel this is one thing that differentiate the European political cultures and the US political culture. In Europe I feel we do better understand that people are stupid (in general). They won't insure their health, they'll kill you for $50, they won't pay the price for an education. That's why we don't have guns, we have mostly free healthcare and universities. In the US, I feel you guys hope or would like that peop…

I see your point but it also implies that Europe breeds the stupid while US allows them to extract themselves from the gene pool.. not a very nice perspective for me (as an European)

Yes good point. Now, in the US, some of the stupids seem to extract a lot of other/innocent people from the gene pool with them...

Re: Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

#30

Post by Sniffnoy »

srrge wrote: post #24

I feel this is one thing that differentiate the European political cultures and the US political culture. In Europe I feel we do better understand that people are stupid (in general). They won't insure their health, they'll kill you for $50, they won't pay the price for an education. That's why we don't have guns, we have mostly free healthcare and universities. In the US, I feel you guys hope or would like that peop…

I'll let Sarah Constantin make this argument for me: https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/in-defense-of-... :)
Post reply on HN