Incompetence/Malice
Mark Perew
Barlett's and elsewhere but I'm coming up dry. Can you please help?
aTdHvAaNnKcSe
Never ascribe to malice what can be excused as incompetence.
Håvard Fosseng
From THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.9, 01 APR 1992:
:Hanlon's Razor: prov. A corollary of {Finagle's Law}, similar to
Occam's Razor, that reads "Never attribute to malice that which can
be adequately explained by stupidity." The derivation of the
common title Hanlon's Razor is unknown; a similar epigram has been
attributed to William James. Quoted here because it seems to be a
particular favorite of hackers, often showing up in {fortune
cookie} files and the login banners of BBS systems and commercial
networks. This probably reflects the hacker's daily experience of
environments created by well-intentioned but short-sighted people.
-- Håvard Fosseng
--
Håvard Fosseng What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of
Physics Institute scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture
University of Oslo of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin
haav...@fys.uio.no or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
-- Bertrand Russell
Jim Offord
: I've been trying to find a source for the following quote. I've checked
: aTdHvAaNnKcSe
: Never ascribe to malice what can be excused as incompetence.
Also known as Hanlon's razor, more often stated as:
Never ascribe to malice what can be more easily explained by
stupidity.
As to source, there was an earlier thread that discussed it.
--
Dr. Jim Offord |There is more to life
Parke-Davis Biotechnology |than increasing its speed.
off...@aa.wl.com |
Opinions? They're all mine. |Mohandas K. Gandhi