Hanlon's Razor
The aphorism which reminds us to never attribute to malice something that can simply be explained by incompetence.
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Origin
Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania submitted this maxim to Murphy's Law Book Two (1980) by Arthur Bloch, winning a contest for new entries. Similar sentiments date back centuries — Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 novella Logic of Empire warned against attributing "to villainy that which simply results from stupidity."
Everyday Use
This one can be used as a daily reminder in so many of our interactions. It's hard to recognize that so often, things around us aren't happening to us, much less with purposefully bad intent — rather, they exist as circumstances of the moment, often having little to do with us personally.
Updated July 26, 2018