Many of us are familiar with Occam’s razor as a tool for explanation, but Hanlon’s razor flies under the radar.

Simply put: don’t attribute malice when it is easily explained by stupidity.

We are in a world of quick, knee-jerk reaction decisions and shallow thinking. Unfortunately, you cannot make an assumption that underneath that is a pool of wisdom.

Of course, if we keep invoking Hanlon’s razor quite liberally, we run into the natural assumption that everything is done out of sheer stupidity. Which, in consideration, isn’t too far off the mark:

Just go for a drive in rush-hour traffic.
Or spend five minutes on Twitter.
Or listen to a politician’s speech.

Yes, there’s definitely enough malicious intent out there and we should be on guard for it. However, for the everyday judgement, Hanlon’s razor serves us best.