Cut them some slack with Hanlon’s razor

A philosophical razor is a ‘rule of thumb’ that allows one to eliminate unlikely explanations for a phenomenon and avoid unnecessary actions and futile discussion. Perhaps the most famous example of a razor is Occam’s razor, which states that ‘entities should not be multiplied without necessity’.

In essence, occam’s razor imposes that simple, concise answers to a question are preferable to convoluted ones that require strenuous mental gymnastics to reach a conclusion.

Yet, whilst Occam’s razor is perhaps the most famous and widely referenced philosophical razor, I have personally been more fascinated in the ever-so-practical Hanlon’s razor, which reads ‘Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity’. Hanlon’s razor was originally written in the 18th century as a joke, yet upon reflection, it is clear that this axiom has profound implications on day-to-day life in the 21st century.

Hanlon’s razor offers its practitioners a way to overlook silly mistakes and cut people some slack. In a world where we are required to work with others everyday in order to navigate daily tasks, having a pessimistic view that others are always purposely and maliciously plotting against us is toxic and detrimental to our relationship with those around us. Excusing people for their shortcomings and attributing them to misinformation positions us to help those around us whose actions have negatively impacted us in any way.

In addition, adopting the mindset of Hanlon’s razor in dealing with people everyday saves us a great deal of anger and frustration. How many times have you road raged at someone after they cut you off, or held a grudge when that work friend didn’t wave back when you saw them in a public place? How much mental real estate could you vacate if you were able to just excuse the offending party right then and there, feeding yourself an excuse on their behalf to expedite the process?

The truth is, people are generally not plotting our demise — they don’t care enough to. Once we accept that, we can forget about the petty grievances that populate our minds and focus our attention on the things which truly matter.