Carlo Cipolla's Laws of Stupidity

 

 

"By creating a graph of Cipolla's two factors, we obtain four groups of people.

Helpless people contribute to society but are taken advantage of by it;  

Intelligent people contribute to society and leverage their contributions into personal benefits;  

Stupid people are counterproductive to both their and others' interests;  

Bandits pursue their own self-interest even when this poses a net detriment to societal welfare. An additional category of ineffectual people either exists in its own right or can be considered to be in the center of the graph."