Among other things the essay has a wonderful definition of stupidity, and related conditions.
Intelligent—benefits others as well as himself
Bandit—benefits himself at the expense of others
Helpless—failure who nevertheless at least benefits others
Stupid—harms others while also harming himself
He places these as quadrants in a plane, with Bandit and Helpless being transitional between Intelligent and Stupid. That is, Bandits can benefit themselves more than they harm others near Intelligent, to harming others substantially more than they benefit, done next to Stupid.
http://www.searchlores.org/realicra/basiclawsofhumanstupidity.htm
and comments on it here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=817703
Among other things the essay has a wonderful definition of stupidity, and related conditions.
Intelligent—benefits others as well as himself
Bandit—benefits himself at the expense of others
Helpless—failure who nevertheless at least benefits others
Stupid—harms others while also harming himself
He places these as quadrants in a plane, with Bandit and Helpless being transitional between Intelligent and Stupid. That is, Bandits can benefit themselves more than they harm others near Intelligent, to harming others substantially more than they benefit, done next to Stupid.
The plane thing is a wonderful system but to the extent that it is intended as a definition of intelligent it is just wrong.