Alberto Monteiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>Joshua Bell misquoted:
> >
> > "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately
> > explained by incompetence."
> >
>The correct form, from Heinlein's "Logic of Empire" [a kind
>of pseudo-prequel to "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", even
>thought it's in a different planet and a different universe]
>is:
>
> You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply
> result from stupidity.
I've seen the quote (usually with stupidity instead of incompetence), often
titled "Hanlon's Razor", attributed to everyone under the sun, including
Napoleon. Jerry Pournelle attributes it to Napoleon in
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives/archivesmail/mail40.html, but doesn't
cite a source - and never trust what someone just knows. :)
http://www.elsewhere.org/jargon_search/TAG856.html contains a discussion of
the quote, and concludes it probably did originate with Heinlein.
Whether I misquoted or not is an interesting question. I wasn't quoting
Heinlein, I was quoting Hanlon's Razor, which is subtly different and more
generalized but itself an uncertain beast.
This is the vein of:
"This sentence almost ended after seven words, didn't it?"
Joshua (who's been poking at Hofstadters's "Metamagical Themas" lately.)
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