I
saw the title, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlos M. Cipolla,
and chuckled thinking it must be a book of humor. Then I saw that the forward
is written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and thought better of my assumption and bought
the book.
Taleb
explains, “the author has a formal axiomatic definition of what stupid means:
someone who harms others without procuring any gain fir himself or herself—in contrast
to the much more predictable bandit who gains from harming you” (viii, italics
his).
Cipolla
explains that there are equal percentages of stupid people at every level and
in every race, gender, ethnicity – everything of which you can think.
Cipolla
states that there are five laws of human stupidity, and there are four
categories of people – and all people fall to one degree or another along the
four axes in differing spots depending on the degree one is one or the other.
His
observations almost seem obvious until you sit back and think about them, and
then you realize how profound they are. For the sake of your discovering this exceedingly
readable, thought-provoking, and short book, I will not state the rules or the
categories.
Once
you have read the book, there are several blank charts at the end to plot out
where you, your family member, or co-worker fall between being stupid and dangerous.
This
is a book to go back to more than once.
[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and
Goodreads.com].
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