The basic laws of human stupidity Paperback – 3 Jan. 2011

Cipolla reframes how we judge the impact of everyone's own actions both on ourselves and others. This creates unexpected insights into our own motivations and how we see the world. A powerful perspective!

Great book. Short and sweet and offering some good insight. Now I'm just typing words to fill in the required number of words needed to give a review.

Short, but insightful and amusing opinion. An entertaining read that will certainly make you question and fear the power of stupid people wield in our society.

Very concise, but damningly accurate. Stupidity is introduced as an action that has a negative outcome for others whilst also negatively affecting oneself. I was at first sceptical of this definition, but Cipolla answered my doubts in the rest of this tiny book. Some observations.... Stupidity is consistent across social class. We can all take stupid actions, but some people are through repeated actions weighted towards the label stupid. Many people whom we think of as stupid are in fact helpless or unsuccessful bandits. More depressingly, countries can be doomed by stupidity. The truly stupid are extremely dangerous and by their lose/lose approach cause a net drain on society once they are allowed, by non-stupid people who cannot understand their irrationality and underestimate their stupidity, to take increasing actions that unbalance the win / win gains that not so stupid people take.

Explains a lot about political and social declineEasy read. You can't win against stupidity. That is a fact known

Not terribly convincing though. Won't re-read it - its joined all the other one-time reads on the bookshelf - recommended by a friend - each to their own.

peoples stupidity never ceases to amuse annoy perplex enrage

The question is not rhetorical - I genuinely don't know. Thereby, I imagine, marking myself as stupid. If not, or even if it is, alarmingly insightful while being at the same time snearing and superior. I enjoyed it though. I wouldn't pay £7 for it but the kindle version was worth it