A 'stupid' article.

 Let’s face it- we all have made some stupid decisions in life and will make a few more. These decisions can be regarding career, finance, relations, interests and goals in life. But these stupidities have its utility as these make great learning experiences in life which otherwise we would miss. In some cases these stupid decisions become a boon for us otherwise it becomes a bane. None the less such decisions can be turning points in life as the outcome our decisions show up in future.

People like me are not destined to be great because our whole life is based on cautiousness; we are the play safe types. We don’t not want to deviate from the middle path too much because we are afraid. But all greatness lies who take bold decisions which otherwise is termed sometimes as stupid decisions. People who stick to the middle path are destined for mediocrity. What if Columbus did not want to sail and rather settled for a job. What if Einstein settled for the clerks’ job he was doing and stopped pursuing science? Who would have known Edmond Hillary if he had not climbed the Everest? Great things are achieved when people get out of their comfort zone. Any great thing has to pass through the door of stupidity when it fails but that door can also lead to breakthrough in innovation, thinking and creativity.

In our routine life we often see people in high paying cushy jobs resigning to start a start up or pursue a hobby and passion. We see students getting admission in the best of country’s’ engineering college only to drop off after a year to pursue study in literature or fine arts. We see people doing extreme adventure sports in the name of hobby.

Some are destined to take ‘stupid’ decisions in life and achieve greatness; some are in double mind to take that decision. As parents, teachers and leaders it is our duty that we do not curtail their flight and give them the space for experimenting.

There is another angle to this stupidity which is more of social in nature and it has been classified as the five laws of stupidity. The first law states that stupidity is irrespective of race, religion, gender, profession etc. It is a universal phenomenon. No one can say that people living in rich countries are not or less stupid than people living in poor ones. Same way is with religion and gender or any other classification we make. We will find stupidity everywhere.

The second law states that we often underestimate the number of stupid people around us. This is because most of our opinions about others are mostly based on superficial criteria like a person who is in a very good job will not be considered stupid by me, similarly about education, or race or income etc. Our decisions are influenced by many such criteria as to whom we consider stupid.  If we are using these criteria to form our decision then we ourselves are stupid.

This social theory of stupidity is based on the definition that you are stupid if you are causing loss to others without benefiting yourself. In this third law we see some variables based on the following matrix.

On the X axis is the loss or benefit to themselves criteria (from left to right). On the Y axis is; are you benefiting others or causing loss to others criteria (from top to bottom).  From this matrix we see that if you are benefiting others as well as yourself then you are intelligent. If you are benefiting others and causing loss to yourself then you are helpless or a naïve person; it can be said that you are allowing yourself to be exploited. If you are causing loss to yourself as well as others then you are stupid. And if you are causing loss to others and benefiting yourself then you are a bandit or a selfish person.

The fourth law states that stupid people are consistent in their behavior or in other words they consistently cause losses to others as well as themselves. This is because it is very difficult to make a stupid person realize that he is stupid. It also states that the level of stupidity of a stupid person is underestimated by a non stupid person. A non stupid person will always underestimate the damage that a stupid person can cause.

The fifth law states that a stupid person is more dangerous than a criminal and bandit. This is so because the actions of a criminal are predictable that he will do everything to benefit himself and loss to others. But in the case of a stupid person it is not known and not predictable that what he will do to cause loss to himself as well as others. A rough example can be that a stupid person can burn his mattress to kill the bedbugs rather than putting the mattress in sunlight.

These laws are more applicable as a collective social behavior also where we act in a certain way under influence of someone else like a political leader or cult leader. In every country you will find such people who are holding positions of power and taking stupid decisions and influencing people to accept their stupidity.

These are not my laws but of an Italian Carlo M Cippolla.