Definitely has the slant that everyone in the world is stupid. I don't like that kind of world view, but still somewhat interesting. Can't stop estimating that most of the people in the world are stupid. Pretty antisocial.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
21–30 of 50 posts
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well - I think it's part parody. I mean - obviously the author hasn't done the sort of empirical work discovering the amount of stupid people in each kind of social class. It was at this point in the text that people like me laughed and people like you required a laugh-track. It's interesting though. I meet dudes like you that respond to something that for some reason irks them with: "It's not formulated to the highe…
The reason I say it's the worst kind of trash is (ironically) the same reason the author says stupid people are the most dangerous - it has about as much merit as, say, a Daily Mail article, but because it's presented in a way that mimics science, it more easily slips past peoples' defences. I suspect that you are falling victim to hyperbole yourself with "highest standards of intellectual rigour". I don't expect a d…
To a certain degree I emphasise - in spoken contexts I often fail to pick up sarcasm. But I have far less problems in navigating through subtle shifts in tone in a piece of text.
While you seem to see it as a wolf in sheep's clothing and are terrified that the sheep are about to be devoured, I'm seeing the wolf, dressed in sheep's clothing, comically delivering a lecture to said sheep about avoiding wolves - and actually dispensing some pretty good advice. Surely you can see the wonderfully playful irony here.
What's more, the sheep are sitting around (i.e. hacker news readers) having a good ol laugh at the wolf. And you're amongst them shouting loudly - WATCH OUT THE WOLF WILL DEVOUR YOU! And when they look at you strangely your response to this is to conclude that you're just in the wrong crowd.
Just a shame is all - you're obviously quite a smart chap. It's like meeting Beethoven and finding out that really he hates listening to Mozart. It would boggle the mind!
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#23The article is very funny, but I do find the definition of stupidity as the tendency to perform actions that benefit nobody as particularly insightful.
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason I say it's the worst kind of trash is (ironically) the same reason the author says stupid people are the most dangerous - it has about as much merit as, say, a Daily Mail article, but because it's presented in a way that mimics science, it more easily slips past peoples' defences. I suspect that you are falling victim to hyperbole yourself with "highest standards of intellectual rigour". I don't expect a d…
To a certain degree I emphasise - in spoken contexts I often fail to pick up sarcasm. But I have far less problems in navigating through subtle shifts in tone in a piece of text. While you seem to see it as a wolf in sheep's clothing and are terrified that the sheep are about to be devoured, I'm seeing the wolf, dressed in sheep's clothing, comically delivering a lecture to said sheep about avoiding wolves - and actu…
Ha. Well, I don't know if I'd describe myself as terrified or shouting, but I take your point gladly. I wasn't being facetious when I said I hope it's a parody that's gone over my head.
For the record, though, the "wrong crowd" was referring to your suggestion that I should step back from the discussion (presumably because you found my comment too forceful or emotional), which I took as your main point. I meant that if your sentiment is shared by others, it could be that that form of argument isn't appreciated on HN. I'm not quite condescending enough to suggest it's the community's fault if I don't get the joke. ;)
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#25This is trash of the worst kind: fatuous nonsense wrapped in pseudoscience. Please tell me this is a parody and it's gone over my head. Just in case, I will critique in the spirit of the original article: The first immutable law of madeupistan is that this article makes no sense. If one quantifies by Q the amount of sense this article doesn't make, and divides it by L, which is how badly the sense it doesn't make is,…
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Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#26This is trash of the worst kind: fatuous nonsense wrapped in pseudoscience. Please tell me this is a parody and it's gone over my head. Just in case, I will critique in the spirit of the original article: The first immutable law of madeupistan is that this article makes no sense. If one quantifies by Q the amount of sense this article doesn't make, and divides it by L, which is how badly the sense it doesn't make is,…
You're definitly not in the I group of people. I was also a bit irritated by the pseudo-scientific introduction, but reading it all, at the end, I came to the conclusion that this is strong and valuable wisdom. I even consider it a valuable scientific work equivalent to the work of early taxonomists. It is a theory which allows to infer and deduce things that where not obvious in the first place.
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#27I come across this maybe once a year while browsing the internet, and I'm always impressed. The author's ability to get just the right mix of resigned dry wit so he doesn't come across as cocky or a jerk or a defeatist... it's rather incredible. There's gems in there, too - > 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 incur…
Of course you enjoy it. It makes you feel smart.
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#28I come across this maybe once a year while browsing the internet, and I'm always impressed. The author's ability to get just the right mix of resigned dry wit so he doesn't come across as cocky or a jerk or a defeatist... it's rather incredible. There's gems in there, too - > 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 incur…
Of course you enjoy it. It makes you feel smart.
It makes us all look smart, but reinforces the fear that the majority of us belong to H1. Society improves, but at what cost to us?
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#29The article is very funny, but I do find the definition of stupidity as the tendency to perform actions that benefit nobody as particularly insightful.
I agree that it is an important insight.
intelligence is less confusing when regarded as an optimization process.
Re: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason I say it's the worst kind of trash is (ironically) the same reason the author says stupid people are the most dangerous - it has about as much merit as, say, a Daily Mail article, but because it's presented in a way that mimics science, it more easily slips past peoples' defences. I suspect that you are falling victim to hyperbole yourself with "highest standards of intellectual rigour". I don't expect a d…
To a certain degree I emphasise - in spoken contexts I often fail to pick up sarcasm. But I have far less problems in navigating through subtle shifts in tone in a piece of text. While you seem to see it as a wolf in sheep's clothing and are terrified that the sheep are about to be devoured, I'm seeing the wolf, dressed in sheep's clothing, comically delivering a lecture to said sheep about avoiding wolves - and actu…
It's like meeting Beethoven and finding out that really he hates listening to Mozart.
Apparently, Ludwig was rather taken with Wolfgang's music: