The Peter principle and human stupidity

In the 1980s, I used to compare organisational promotions to density: the lower someone’s density, the faster and higher (s)he will be promoted within an organisation. Probably, I was not yet aware of the Peter principle, “which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence”, a 1969 management book by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull.

In my view, The Peter principle is closely related to human stupidity, which is far more visible at the top of a company or organisation than at its bottom (eg, board of directors, government). The freeze response of leaders in crisis situations (eg, Covid-19 pandemic) is an example of the Peter principle and of human stupidity (eg, FD, my recent blog, PNAS).

Human stupidity has given rise to some (in)famous quotes:

• Albert Einstein: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not [yet completely] sure about the universe! (Quote Investigator)
• Alexandre Dumas: One thing that deeply humbles me is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not. (Le Monde, Quote Investigator)

What might explain their observations?? I think, feel and believe that human beliefs are the root cause for the above quotes. We are the only species in nature that has migrated from Needs to Wants to Beliefs (my blogs). Human beliefs are categorised in the 7 Belief systems, my concept. Its characteristic is its willingness to die for a Cause – or kill for that same purpose.

In 1976, Carlo M. Cipolla (1922-2000), an Italian professor of economic history, published an essay on the “Basic Laws of Human Stupidity”, which outlined five fundamental laws:

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.

Interestingly, we have great difficulty in believing (sic!) that stupid people are actually stupid people. Often, we believe (sic!) that stupid people are only pretending to be stupid for whatever reason. A great example is the 1979 film Being There (rated 8.0 in IMDb).

Something Stupid (1967) by Frank Sinatra & Nancy Sinatra

artist-1, artist-2, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2, Wiki-3

And then I go and spoil it all by saying somethin’ stupid like, “I love you”

Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.