Hanlon's razor

Hanlon's razor is an adage, or rule of thumb, that states: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."^[1] It is a philosophical razor that suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior. It is purportedly named after one Robert J. Hanlon,^[2] who submitted the statement to Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! (1980).^[1]

Origin

In a compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law published in Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! (1980), the adage was titled "Hanlon's razor", without any indication of who "Hanlon" might be.^[1]

A statement similar to Hanlon's razor appears in Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 novella "Logic of Empire".^[3] The character Doc in the story describes the "devil theory" fallacy, explaining, "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity."^[4]

Hanlon's razor became well known after its inclusion in the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang, in 1990.^[5] Later that year, the Jargon File editors declared its origin unknown, and wrote that there was a similar epigram by William James; however, it seems that this was a mistaken reference and that they actually meant William James Laidlay, since Laidlay is known to have written a comparable statement.^[6][7] In 1996, the Jargon File entry on Hanlon's Razor noted the existence of a similar statement in Heinlein's novella, with speculation that "Hanlon's razor" might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor".^[3] The link to Murphy's law was described in a pair of 2001 blog entries by Quentin Stafford-Fraser, citing emails from Joseph E. Bigler.^[8][9] In 2002, the Jargon File entry noted the same.^[10] The Jargon File now calls it a "Murphyism".^[2]

The name was inspired by Occam's razor.^[11]

Variations

Grey's law (a humorous parallel to Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law):

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.^[12]

A variation appears in The Wheels of Chance (1896) by H. G. Wells:

There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature.^[13]

A similar quote is also misattributed to Napoleon.^[14] Andrew Roberts, in his biography of Winston Churchill, quotes from Churchill's correspondence with King George VI in February 1943 regarding disagreements with Charles de Gaulle: "His insolence ... may be founded on stupidity rather than malice."^[15]

See also

• List of eponymous laws
• Finagle's law, anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment
• Hitchens's razor, assertions made without evidence may be dismissed without evidence
• Mike Alder § Newton's flaming laser sword, do not dispute propositions unless they can be shown to have observable consequences
• Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is often the correct one
• Pareto Principle, roughly 80% of outcomes derive from 20% of causes
• Peter Principle, bureaucratic inefficiency is ubiquitous because employees are promoted to their level of incompetence
• Principle of charity, interpret a speaker's statements in the most rational way possible
• Stigler's law of eponymy, an observation that no scientific discovery is named after its discoverer
• Sturgeon's law, ninety percent of everything is crap

References

1. ^ Arthur Bloch (1980). Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!. Price Stern Sloan. p. 52. ISBN 9780417064505. (search result in archive.org)
2. ^ "Hanlon's Razor". Jargon File. Eric S. Raymond. 2002-03-03. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
3. ^ Eric S. Raymond (ed.) (1996-07-24). "The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
4. ^ Robert Heinlein (1941-03-01). "Logic of Empire". Astounding Science-Fiction. Vol. 27, no. 1. p. 39. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
5. ^ Guy L. Steele & Eric S. Raymond (eds.) (1990-06-12). "The Jargon File, Version 2.1.1 (Draft)". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
6. ^ Quote Investigator (2016-12-30). "Never Attribute to Malice That Which Is Adequately Explained by Stupidity". quoteinvestigator.com. Retrieved 2026-03-26.
7. ^ Eric S. Raymond & Guy L. Steele (eds.) (1990-12-15). "The Jargon File, Version 2.2.1". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
8. ^ Stafford-Fraser, Quentin (2001-11-26). "[untitled]". Retrieved 2017-07-19.
9. ^ Stafford-Fraser, Quentin (2001-12-04). "The origins of Hanlon's Razor". Retrieved 2017-07-19.
10. ^ Eric S. Raymond (ed.) (2002-03-03). "The Jargon File, Version 4.3.2". jargon-file.org. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
11. ^ Livraghi, Giancarlo (2004). Il potere della stupidità. Pescara, Italy: Monti & Ambrosini SRL. p. 1. ISBN 9788889479131.
12. ^ Razzetti, Gustavo (2019-07-08). "The world is not out to get you". medium.com. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
13. ^ Wells, H. G. (1896). The Wheels of Chance
14. ^ Selin, Shannon (14 July 2014). "Napoleon Misquoted – Ten Famous Things Bonaparte Never Actually Said". MilitaryHistoryNow.com. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
15. ^ Roberts, Andrew (2019). Churchill: Walking with Destiny. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 9781101981009.

Literature

• Hubbard, Douglas W. (2020). The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It. Second ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781119521914. ISBN 9781119522034.