Scott's Razor
by Scott Hardie on October 5, 2009
Hanlon's Razor states:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.That's cute, but aren't we all just a little quick to assume either explanation? Nobody trusts anybody else's judgment any more. I propose Scott's Razor:
Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which might be explained by a perfectly good reason that you aren't aware of.
Six Replies to Scott's Razor
Tony Peters | October 6, 2009
I've seen way too much stupidity (even my own) not to assume stupidity most of the time
Steve West | October 6, 2009
My personal hero, Shakespeare, sums it up so well with the oft-quoted, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Things are rarely just black or white and mutually exclusive.
Steve Dunn | October 7, 2009
OK wow, I thought TC had been slow for a long time and now I see everyone's hanging out in this green part of the site.
Scott Hardie | October 7, 2009
TC is for talking about things other than Rock Block and the goo game?
Aaron Shurtleff | October 7, 2009
Wait, there's things other than Rock Block and Goo Game??
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Bombed Back to the Jurassic Age
Judging from what happened to my car the other day, not only is there a species of pterodactyl still alive in Sarasota, but it's suffering from an outbreak of dysentery. Go »One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Ah, Newsweek. You deliver a comprehensive cover story about the current state of evolutionary theory, barely slipping in a quick nod to the cultural debate, in an article that sticks wisely to the science. What do you follow up with as the B story in this week's science section? Go »WGW: If It's Good Enough for Dan Marino, It's Good Enough for Me
This is more like Weight-Gain Wednesday after a week and a half with Kelly, bouncing around Sarasota restaurants and Disney World. No matter how many thousands of calories I burned walking around that theme park for three days, I'm sure I consumed twice as many, and that was just in fudge from the Main Street Confectionery. Now that I'm back and I've done some very scientific research – asking a friend whether she hated one – I have chosen NutriSystem over Medifast as the exclusive supplier of my every meal. Go »So Long, NCSA Primer
Someone asked me for help learning HTML today. I turned to my trusted traditional source, the good old primer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, but alas, it has finally been removed after all these years. This was one of the major how-to guides in the early years of the web, and it's the very guide that I used to teach myself HTML one weekend in 1996, from which this very site you're reading has since evolved. Go »Scott's Pet Peeve #8446
Not all mobile phones mix a qwerty keypad with their main numerical keypad, but I have an old Blackberry that does. That makes me especially frustrated by companies that only provide a letter-based phone number without showing a numerical alternative (800-LIKE-THIS). I just went to cancel Nutrisystem, and of course they require you to call a counselor rather than just cancel online, and the only number they give is 888-459-THIN. Go »
Jackie Mason | October 6, 2009
[hidden by author request]