Hanlon’s Razor

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

This is a really useful mental model. Although it was submitted to a joke book by a person named Robert J. Hanlon, it’s full of truth. For professional purposes I usually change the word “stupidity” to “ignorance.” I find the latter less pejorative than the former.

It’s good to remember that we are all ignorant of many things. And that’s okay. It just means we’re human and have a lot to learn.

When I’m coaching, this is the way I share the model. It is particularly useful for engineers or product managers who get frustrated with the actions of business colleagues. When colleagues do something that makes you frustrated, consider for a moment what information you have that they don’t. And ask yourself, are they being purposefully malicious or are they just lacking information?