I’ve crossed enough paths to know that one in four people are rock stupid.

— Shadow Moon, from television’s American Gods

Here’s a rather pessimistic take on humankind.

An economist at UC Berkeley sorted people into four groups based upon their proclivities for gain or loss, for themselves and for others. This leads to four groups:

• Intelligent: Gain for themselves and gain for others
• Bandits: Gain for themselves and loss for others
• Helpless: Loss for themselves and gain for others
• Stupid: Loss for themselves and loss for others

In fact, Professor Cipolla thought the greatest threat to humanity was stupidity, and developed five laws for the foolish.

At first, I considered gain and loss in purely economic terms, but then realized gain and loss should also include the creation and improvement of information and knowledge.

Further Reading:

https://qz.com/967554/the-five-universal-laws-of-human-stupidity/

http://harmful.cat-v.org/people/basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/

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