Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Hanlon’s Razor
The world is out to get us.
At least that’s how it feels. It’s easy to feel like everyone is conspiring against us and intentionally holding us back, hurting us, or otherwise damaging our pursuit of the life that we want.
How we feel, however, is rarely correlated with reality.
Avoiding false positives
Getting mad at a figment of our own imagination is one of the silliest things we can do, but we do it all the time.
When a friend forgets to invite us or a spouse misspeaks, we assume the worst, create a story in our heads, and get frustrated with the story that we’ve created.
Before we get upset at something that we’ve manufactured in our minds, we should check if the story we’re telling ourselves is true, but it’s easier to be angry about our assumptions than it is to ask the people we care about what they really meant.
There is always a big difference between our assumptions and reality and we shouldn’t waste our precious time and energy worrying about something that doesn’t exist.
Even if there is malicious behavior, it’s still in our best interest to ignore it altogether.
Ignoring malice
In cases where truly malicious behavior lobbed against us, we’re better off pretending it was a mistake or a misunderstanding.
In most cases, this malicious behavior comes from people we’ll never see again.
It’s much better to assume their behavior stems from stupidity or a misunderstanding than it is to engage with their true intentions. The less we let others bother us, the better off we’ll be. Our default should be not to engage.
We shouldn’t honk back, we shouldn’t raise our voice, and we shouldn’t care what others do or say regardless of their intent.
Instead, we should focus on ourselves and move on. The more we can let the petty behavior roll off of us, the better our lives will be.
When we’re engaging with the people we care about, we need to verify our understanding before we react. When we’re dealing with the masses, the less we engage the better.
In every scenario, we should always assume stupidity first.
It may feel like the world is out to get us, but the reality is we’re not that important and the world is filled with a lot more stupidity and mistakes than we realize.
Prompts
When was the last time you assumed malice that could be explained by stupidity?
In what area of your life do you need to assume more stupidity?
Do you engage in situations that you shouldn’t? If you do, what should you do instead?
Deep Dive
A deep dive into the origins and meaning of Hanlon’s Razor.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin