Stupidity - Not a Choice
Stupid is as stupid does….
Great chart this - breaking us down into 4 categories - Intelligent, Bandits, Helpless and Stupid.
First came across this chart on Professor Galloway’s podcast a couple of months ago- it was a rant about the number of stupid people in the world. Came across it again recently -when looking at Over-confidence. In short: studies consistently show that 85%+ of people believe they are above average in intelligence and any number of skills. So I decided to read a little more about it
Professor Carlo M. Cipolla
How to Read the Chart
On the X-axis is whether or not your actions benefit you in some way.
On the Y-axis is whether or not your actions benefit others/society/team in some way.
Intelligent - your actions serve you and your wider community.
Bandits - your actions serve you but have a negative impact on the wider society/others
Helpless - your actions serve the community - but with a negative impact to you (think ‘Starving Artist’)
Stupid - your actions hurt you and those around you.
Not surprisingly - nobody thinks they’re in the S box.
But take a look at yourself in the past and judge - how many times were you acting stupidly - not helping yourself or others. With hindsight it is sometimes obvious that what you were doing was not helping you - or others. But you couldn’t see it at the time - you thought you were being smart.
My view - we genuinely dont believe we’re in the S box - even when, to everyone else, we are clearly are. Somehow we see ourselves furthering our cause or the goals of our team, our family our community. We’re missing something. Perspective maybe. Insight. We are confusing the short term with permanent. Or pleasure with happiness. Or revenge with justice…or dopamine with oxytocin…. fake news with facts…
How many of your current team in the S box? B Box or I box? How many would put themselves in the same box? Most of us would say we are in the I box - acting intelligently. But we can all point to memebers of our team who appear to be self destructing, looking after number one or putting undue pressure on themselves. But I bet they all thinking they’re being Intelligent.
How to Help People move towards the ‘I’ Box
Focus on developing a strong sense of personal PURPOSE
Build a connection to a common VISION
Offer genuine, thoughtful and constructive FEEDBACK
Create an ENVIRONMENT where honesty is valued and encouraged.
Be PATIENT
Continue to share INFORMATION with Context, Perspective and Kindness.
A leader can do the above. Or a friend. Stupid people are good people temporarily acting in a stupid way. They - and we - can change.
If it’s not enough - or not moving quickly enough - leave the S people alone. They’ll move on and out. Until then - keep well clear - they’ll drag you down into the S with them.
Let me know your thoughts on how you deal with yourself when you’re Stupid and helping others to move from S to I
Further notes
This chart was devised by Professor Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley and it comes with 5 laws
The Laws:
1. Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals among us.
2. The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses themselves.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.