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.

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.

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: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 {sig
block}s, {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. Compare {Sturgeon's
Law}.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary

Related:

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 Hanlon eponym is not definitely known, but a very similar remark ("You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity....
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Hanlon's Razo
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Sturgeon's Law: prov. "Ninety percent of everything is crap".
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, "Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud....
Sturgeon's Law prov. "Ninety percent of everything is crap".
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, "Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud....