Carlo M. Cipolla (15 August 1922 – 5 September 2000) was an Italian economic historian. He was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Cipolla produced two non-technical, popular essays that circulated in English among friends in 1973 and 1976. The second essay, "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" ("Le leggi fondamentali della stupidità umana", 1976),[3][4] explores the controversial subject of stupidity.


These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
   
2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
   
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
   
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
   
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
   

Corollary: a stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.


As is evident from the third law, Cipolla identifies two factors to consider when exploring human behavior:

• Benefits and losses that individuals cause to themselves.
  
• Benefits and losses that individuals cause to others.
  

Cipolla further refines his definition of "bandits" and "naïve people" by noting that members of these groups can either add to or detract from the general welfare, depending on the relative gains (or losses) that they cause themselves and society.

A bandit may enrich himself more or less than he impoverishes society, and a naïve person may enrich society more or less than he impoverishes himself and/or allows himself to be impoverished.

(...)

source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Carlo_M._Cipolla

A few quotes and sayings that we found around while browsing, to add to a few already posted further down... Some are funny, some are really deep and a few that everyone of us can relate to

• The two rules for success in life are:
  1) Never tell them everything you know.
  
  
• Teamwork is essential. It lets you blame someone else. -Anonymous
  
  
• Funny, I don't remember being absent minded.
  
  
• If all goes well, you've overlooked something!
  
  
• Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
  
  
• We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse.
  
  
• Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
  
  

Want to read more? Just check the 'Read more..' link bellow

A few quotes and sayings that we found around while browsing - check this news again, as we will be adding a few as we find nice ones to post

• There are only 10 different type of people in the world; those who understand binary and those who don't ...
  
  
• Back Up My Hard Drive? I Can't Find The Reverse Switch!
  
  
• If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z
  X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut. - Albert Einstein
  
  
• If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten. - George Clooney
  
  
• If you think experts are expensive, wait until you see how much amateurs cost you!
  

Want to read more? Just check the 'Read more..' link bellow

A good comics site, 'The Perry Bible Fellowship', found while browsing some links that were sent to us... Lots of comic strips, with very different kind of humour, created by a guy named Nicholas Gurewitch. Worth checking and browsing around!

This is a place for news, discussions, comments.. about every subject that is non-related or won't fit on any other moldplast's blog categories!

This will be only maintained on a non regular basis, and everyone is free to post comments, links, opinions, about any subject that he/she feels like it.

Just hope this won't waste too much bandwidth

So, welcome everybody !!