Hanlon's Razor

Tracing the history of Hanlon's Razor! Cool stuff.

<~~~ This quote is included in a book entitled Murphy's Law Book Two, More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong. It was published in 1980. The quote is attributed to a certain Robert J. Hanlon. (thus, Hanlon's Razor)

Interestingly enough, a similar quotation appears in 1941 in Robert A. Heinlein's (very probably Hanlon and Heinlein are one and the same) short story, Logic of Empire:
"You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity."

This was noticed in 1996 and first referenced in version 4.0.0 of the Jargon File, with speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor."
Heinlein's Razor has since been defined as variations on:
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice. or ... but keep your eyes open."

A variant, Grey's Law, posits:
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

Observations on the sway of human error over malice occur in various works. In 1774 Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther mentions:
"...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."

A probably apocryphal quote from Albert Einstein deals with the power of stupidity:
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."

How about Schiller's "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
Asimov's novel, The God's Themselves, was named after Schiller's quote.

Elbert Hubbard said, "Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."

A practical observation on the risks of stupidity was made by the German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord in Truppenführung, 1933:
"I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!"