Download or read book The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity written by Carlo M. Cipolla and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A masterly book" —Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan "A classic" —Simon Kuper, Financial Times An economist explains five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world Throughout history, a powerful force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local bar. It is human stupidity. Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley, created this vitally important book in order to detect and neutralize its threat. Both hilarious and dead serious, it will leave you better equipped to confront political realities, unreasonable colleagues, or your next dinner with your in-laws. The Laws: 1. Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals among us. 2. The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses themselves. 4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. 5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

Download or read book Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere written by Jason Kelly and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hard-hitting look at achieving financial freedom by avoiding excessive borrowing and spending If you don't actively resist America's culture of debt, you'll end up precisely where the government, banks, and big business want you to be: indentured servitude. The mistakes people make with their money are basic, and avoidable, and unless you understand what they are, you're probably going to repeat them. What you need is someone who can shed light on the obstacles we face and show you how to avoid getting tripped up by them. Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere shows how society is rigged to take as much of your wealth as possible, and simple ways you can resist. It investigates, explains, and offers advice for all those who have fallen into debt, taken a second mortgage, been trapped by credit cards, or found themselves unable to get ahead. Discusses what you can do to stop the destructive cycle of borrowing and spending Illustrates the four major tenets of getting money right Highlights how to avoid the many ways that government, banks, and big business try to trap you with debt To secure your financial future, you must break the dangerous cycle of borrowing and spending, and learn how to guard your wealth against corporate ploys. Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere leads you down the only proven path to financial freedom.

Download or read book How to Deal with Stupid People the Guide written by Marta Plazuk and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-24 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Funny Gag Gift for people who worry to much about what other people think. Only one advice in this book: FU*K'EM! repeate daily like mantra!

Download or read book The Great Mental Models Volume 1 written by Shane Parrish and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Download or read book Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid written by Robert J. Sternberg and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A serious attempt to understand a common phenomenon” from the author of The Nature of Human Intelligence (Psychology Today). One need not look far to find breathtaking acts of stupidity committed by people who are smart, or even brilliant. The behavior of clever individuals—from presidents to prosecutors to professors—is at times so amazingly stupid as to seem inexplicable. Why do otherwise intelligent people think and behave in ways so stupid that they sometimes destroy their livelihoods or even their lives? This is an investigation of psychological research to see what it can tell us about stupidity in everyday life. The contributors to the volume—scholars in various areas of human intelligence—present examples of people messing up their lives, and offer insights into the reasons for such behavior. From a variety of perspectives, the contributors discuss: The nature and theory of stupidity How stupidity contributes to stupid behavior Whether stupidity is measurable. While many millions of dollars are spent each year on intelligence research and testing to determine who has the ability to succeed, next to nothing is spent to determine who will make use of their intelligence and not squander it by behaving stupidly. The contributors focus on the neglected side of this discussion, reviewing the full range of theory and research on stupid behavior and analyzing what it tells us about how people can avoid stupidity and its devastating consequences. “Marvelous, devilishly clever, and culturally timely book . . . A fascinating exploration.” —Choice “Easily readable and well referenced . . . May provide just enough momentum for change.” —International Journal of Intelligence

Download or read book The Stupidity Paradox written by Mats Alvesson and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Functional stupidity can be catastrophic. It can cause organisational collapse, financial meltdown and technical disaster. And there are countless, more everyday examples of organisations accepting the dubious, the absurd and the downright idiotic, from unsustainable management fads to the cult of leadership or an over-reliance on brand and image. And yet a dose of stupidity can be useful and produce good, short-term results: it can nurture harmony, encourage people to get on with the job and drive success. This is the stupidity paradox. The Stupidity Paradox tackles head-on the pros and cons of functional stupidity. You'll discover what makes a workplace mindless, why being stupid might be a good thing in the short term but a disaster in the longer term, and how to make your workplace a little less stupid by challenging thoughtless conformity. It shows how harmony and action in the workplace can be balanced with a culture of questioning and challenge. The book is a wake-up call for smart organisations and smarter people. It encourages us to use our intelligence fully for the sake of personal satisfaction, organisational success and the flourishing of society as a whole.

Download or read book Brains Explained written by Alison Caldwell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's Not Rocket Surgery, It's Brain Science! If you have a brain (spoiler alert: if you're reading this, you do!), you've probably wondered how and why it works the way it does (and why it sometimes...doesn't). What do dreams mean? Why do we fall in love? Can doing brain-teasers make us smarter? What about "smart drugs"? Dr. Alison Caldwell, a neuroscientist and Micah Caldwell, a licensed clinical therapist (and, together, the hosts of the popular YouTube series Neuro Transmissions) are here to answer those questions, and hundreds more you never thought to ask, such as...does your cat really love you? What can therapists learn from TRON? Can my diet make me smarter? Why do some people really like feet? And much, much more. Book jacket.

Download or read book 563 Stupid Things Stupid People Do to Mess Up Their Lives written by Dr. Larry Samuel and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you, or has anyone you know, ever suffered from stupidity? From Dr. Larry, the Internationally Renowned Psychotherapist, Self-Righteous Occupier of the Moral High Ground, and All-Around Better Person than You, comes 563 Stupid Things People Do to Mess Up Their Lives. Dr. Larry's previous books, such as You Can't Spell Stupid Without U and I and Why Mediocre Things Happen to Mediocre People, have changed the lives of millions of intelligence-challenged individuals all over the world. So if you're interested in hearing a perfect stranger explain to you how stupid and useless you really are, you'll love Dr. Larry's latest collection of condescending wisdom. For example, don't do the following: Stupid Thing #50: Attempt the Vulcan mind meld. If you don't know what you're doing, this can lead to permanent melding. Stupid Thing #228: Accentuate the positive. Rather than accentuate the positive or eliminate the negative, I'd recommend messing around with Mr. In-Between. Stupid Thing #44: Send in the clowns. I can think of no situation that would be improved by sending in the clowns.

Download or read book The Dumb Book written by Editors of Readers Digest and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The old adage truth is stranger than fiction can also be construed as truth is funnier than fiction and we see no shortage of real people doing and saying dumb things and making us laugh in the process. The Editors of Reader’s Digest present a hilarious collection of dumb people doing dumb things. Every day in America we are bombarded by stupidity; sometimes we just shake our heads, but most of the time we get a good laugh out of the really dumb things people do and say. In our first collection of dumb stories we poke a little fun at the unbelievably dumb things that happen in our lives and have a good chuckle along the way. “You’re a dumb criminal if…You’re not picky about your office locations. Christopher Exley of Everett, Washington, was arrested for conducting a drug deal over the phone—in the bathroom of the Everett Police Department.” “During my brother-in-law’s first performance review, his boss said, “I’m not quite sure what it is you do here. But whatever it is, could you do it faster?” --Jeanie Waara, Philip, SD “In an attempt to balance work and motherhood, I delegated the grocery shopping to my young babysitter. But the job proved a tad daunting. One day while I was at work, she texted me from the supermarket. “Can’t find Brillo pads,” she wrote. “All they have are Tampax and Kotex.” --Kimberly Clark, Alpharetta, GA “I overheard an elderly gentleman tell his friend that he couldn’t meet him the next day because he had to go to the hospital for an autopsy. His friend was sympathetic: “I had one of those last year. Luckily it wasn’t serious.” --Tracy Moralee, Hitchin, Great Britain

Download or read book The Smart Way to Deal with Stupid People written by David E. Silvey and published by . This book was released on 2013-03-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Smart Way to Deal with Stupid People," describes an easy, 5-step process to help you "get what you want--when you want--from people who are in the way."If you're honest, you've probably been in some extremely frustrating situations (for me, it was a cancelled flight at the airport) where you've thought, "Who put this stupid person in charge?" You've thought this (or said it under your breath) because the person in charge (i.e. airline attendant) was standing in your way and keeping you from getting what you wanted and needed (or, for me, keeping me from going where I wanted to go!) So I'm just trying to connect with the frustration that many of you feel. And that's how and why I chose my title.In a very fun and practical way, I describe the Smart Way to deal with these frustrating situations and people. And not only do I teach you how to get what you want and need when you want and need it, but also how to help the "other" person standing in your way (yes, the one you may be thinking is "stupid") get what he wants and needs.I envision an entire series of Smart Way Books that will be people-centric and "others" focused. Each book will embody a process that will help you go into every human interaction with the goal of producing a collaborative, win-win exchange--an exchange that captures, transforms and then harnesses the power of your blockers for mutual benefit.Experts agree that people feel anxiety stemming from fear--fear that they will not get what they want and need, and, as a result, more and more people are experiencing conflict and confrontation in their personal interactions with others.Smart Way Books will address and meet this need by helping people capture the emotions connected to their anxiety so that they can productively get what they want and need. In a sense, the books will be a natural alternative to anti-anxiety medication--an alternative that produces both physical and emotional health!

Download or read book Intellectual Morons written by Daniel J. Flynn and published by Forum Books. This book was released on 2004-09-21 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do well-educated antiwar activists call the president of the United States “the new Hitler” and argue that the U.S. government orchestrated the September 11 attacks? Why does Al Gore believe that cars pose “a mortal threat to the security of every nation”? Why does the Princeton professor known as the father of the animal rights movement object to humans eating animals but not to humans having sex with them—and why does PETA defend that position? In other words, why do smart people fall for stupid ideas? The answer, Daniel J. Flynn reveals in Intellectual Morons, is ideology. Flynn, the author of Why the Left Hates America, shows how people can be so blinded to reality by the causes they serve that they espouse bizarre, sometimes ridiculous, and often dangerous positions. The most influential social movements have spawned ideologues who do not care whether an idea is good or bad, true or false, but only whether it can serve their cause. It is startling how many Americans—and particularly how many media, academic, and political elites—fall for bad ideas. The trouble is, their lies become institutionalized as truth, and we all suffer as a result. In Intellectual Morons, Flynn reveals: •How rabid anti-Americans simply parrot the delusional claims of a few gurus •How the environmental movement, spawned by a “scientist” whose doomsday predictions are almost always wrong, has bred fanaticism, stupidity, and dishonesty •How the hero of the animal rights crowd is a crank who promotes infanticide and euthanasia •How a scientific fraud—and pervert—launched the sexual revolution •How abortion rights activists ignore (or cover up) the fact that their matron saint advocated eugenics and concentration camps •How our universities have become hothouses of leftist ideology •How historians and journalists have airbrushed history to turn a racial separatist into a civil rights icon Filled with jaw-dropping lapses in common sense from even our most celebrated opinion leaders, Intellectual Morons is a welcome reality check for the glaring excesses of today’s political and cultural debates. "This is a sophisticated pile driver of a book, guiding us through the wiles of great luminaries of the netherworld. And such liveliness in the writing, and such erudition. I was quite fascinated by Intellectual Morons."—William F. Buckley, Jr. "Intellectual Morons is exceptionally aptly named. The thought of all that brainpower going down the intellectual drain is sad, but Daniel Flynn's description of it is hilariously on point. This is must reading."—G. Gordon Liddy "Intellectual Morons is a delight—a wonderful intellectual history of the past hundred years. Flynn ably describes the purveyors of the bad ideas that have undermined our free society."—Burton W. Folsom, Jr., professor of history, Hillsdale College "A famous bit of folk wisdom says, 'You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.' Some of the crackpot notions now fashionable in academic circles, as here documented by Daniel Flynn, suggest that saying is an understatement. If you want to know how crazy, and scairy, intellectual morons can get, you have to read this book."—M. Stanton Evans, author of The Theme Is Freedom, contributing editor to Human Events

Download or read book Surrounded by Idiots written by Thomas Erikson and published by St. Martin's Essentials. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner rub you the wrong way? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people. Surrounded by Idiots is an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way we speak and share information. Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication, advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and communicate with those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension. And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

Download or read book How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid written by Franck Frommer and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over 500 million users worldwide, Microsoft's PowerPoint software has become the ubiquitous tool for nearly all forms of public presentation—in schools, government agencies, the military, and, of course, offices everywhere. In this revealing and powerfully argued book, author Franck Frommer shows us that PowerPoint's celebrated ease and efficiency actually mask a profoundly disturbing but little-understood transformation in human communication. Using fascinating examples (including the most famous PowerPoint presentation of all: Colin Powell's indictment of Iraq before the United Nations), Frommer systematically deconstructs the slides, bulleted lists, and flashy graphics we all now take for granted. He shows how PowerPoint has promoted a new, slippery “grammar,” where faulty causality, sloppy logic, decontextualized data, and seductive showmanship have replaced the traditional tools of persuasion and argument. How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid includes a fascinating mini-history of PowerPoint's emergence, as well as a sobering and surprising account of its reach into the most unsuspecting nooks of work, life, and education. For anyone concerned with the corruption of language, the dumbing-down of society, or the unchecked expansion of “efficiency” in our culture, here is a book that will become a rallying cry for turning the tide.

Download or read book You Stupid People written by Ezio Flavio Bazzo and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Stupid People and Why You Cannot Have Nice Things written by Ciliguse Stultus and published by Ciliguse Stultus. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stupid people are everywhere, constantly ruining everything. Politics, religion, science, and social interactions are broken by stupid behavior so often that good sense is the exception rather than the rule in any of them. Sometimes we are the stupid people doing all of that. Even the allegedly brightest among you have likely reduced much of the world down to an overly simplistic all-or-nothing mentality that will only get you so far (at most to the presidency). This book is evidence-free, refusing to scare you with any pesky research that you will not understand. After luring you in, I will kick you in the pants and insult you mercilessly because nobody else has ever told you the plain old truth about anything. Seriously, somebody should tell you "No!" and mean it at least once a day. If you are already a parent who really takes part in raising kids, you can disregard this last part. This book refuses to fix you, because digits and pieces of paper do not do such things. Instead, I will explain why you may be unhappy due to your unquestioning acceptance of incredibly stupid childish assumptions. If you are unhappy, you may find reasons for happiness here, but that will be mainly because you will notice how much better you feel after the kicks in the butt have stopped.

Download or read book I See Stupid People written by Cheryl Caldwell and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's a lot of stupid out there and Caldwell channels it in her new offbeat, hilarious, and hiply illustrated book, I See Stupid People. If stupid stresses you out, then you need to check this out. I See Stupid People is a little pick-me-up for dealing with (and working with) the generally annoying and IQ-challenged breed of humans. And they are everywhere. It soothes stress like a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Heck, it might even have the power of coffee and a private screaming session in the coat closet. * "So when's the wizard going to get back to you about that brain?" and "You drive me to drink. Thank you." These are just a few witticisms shared with readers. * It is the perfect combination of LOL one-liners (the stuff most of us are too scared to say out loud) with expressive characters and illustrations. I See Stupid People is chock-full of what we're all thinking but the PC in us won't let it out.

Download or read book Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money written by Bert Whitehead and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many of us, planning our own financial future presents pitfalls at every turn, because the truth is, when it comes to money, we are not always rational. Now you can take control of your economic life with confidence. Bert Whitehead, one of the top money-management advisors in America, gives you all the information you need to manage your wealth wisely by relying on your strongest asset-yourself. Book jacket.