Incompetence

Of gullibility and foolishness.

by Stephen Greenspan, Ph.D.

Wisdom as Risk-Awareness

I want to say a few words about wisdom, a concept often described as the opposite of foolishness (the main focus of this column). Few concepts have been written about more than wisdom, but if you read an edited book in which twenty psychologists opine about wisdom, you will find twenty different definitions. Read More

Determining Teacher Competence

Although the title of my blog is "Incompetence," most of my posts have dealt with only one aspect of incompetence: foolish (i.e., risk-oblivious) behavior. That is because I am working on a book titled Anatomy of Foolishness, and I have been using this column to generate material for the book. Read More

Foolish Arrogance

A neighbor of mine in Colorado, "Bob Smith," was a wealthy man who owned his own airplane. He had a reputation for being a know-it-all who would dismiss any advice, on the ground that he knew better. A benign example of this occurred when Bob hired a photographer at a substantial fee to take a family portrait, and then informed her that she would only get the chance to shoot one picture. Read More

Foolish Hazing

Hazing is an initiation practice, most common among young people, in which members of a group--such as a fraternity, military unit or sports teams--force newcomers to do unpleasant, humiliating or dangerous activities as a prerequisite to becoming a full-fledged member of the group. Read More

Foolish Connectivity

I suppose it is generational (I am on the old side), and maybe I am a little antisocial, but I just can't get into Facebook. I signed up out of curiosity and because I was too polite to reject anyone asking to be my friend. Read More

Foolish Coverup

Joe Paterno (affectionately nicknamed "Joe Pa") has the most wins ever of any major college football coach, and is someone who until November 2011 had a reputation for always behaving ethically. Read More

Foolish Doctor

According to the "Peter Principle" espoused by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull,"in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." We see this every time a good underling is promoted into becoming a disastrous leader. Read More

Foolish Sex

Whether or not you believe that exonerated French Socialist politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn coerced New York City chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo into performing an unwanted sex act (and I happen to believe he probably did), there is no doubting that what happened in the hotel room had disastrous consequences for the horny septuagenarian. Read More

Jury Gullibility in Orlando

As a recovering Court TV addict, I was finally able to break my dependency on non-stop trial-watching when the network became TruTV and cut back dramatically on its trial coverage. I therefore resisted the lure of the Casey Anthony murder trial, as I knew that once I sipped from that wine it would be difficult if not impossible to put the bottle back in the cabinet. Read More

Panic-Induced Foolishness

Foolish behavior often occurs when one's critical faculties are short-circuited by rapidly unfolding events. In such a scenario, one's initial impulses may lead one down a foolish path, and it can then become very difficult to reverse course and extricate oneself from the consequences of the initial bad decision. Read More

Foolish Humor

Humor is a generally effective way of interacting with others, but it can be a formula for foolishness (i.e., an undesired but predictable bad outcome) when it is offensive or overly flippant. An example of misplaced humor is pointed to as one of the factors that led to the failure of President George H.W. Bush to be reelected in 1992. When accepting the Republican nomination in 1988, Mr. Read More

Is Charlie Sheen Really a Winner?

Like anyone who watches television talk shows or reads newspapers, I have been fascinated with the almost-daily drama associated with America's latest celebrity train wreck, Charlie Sheen. Read More

Murder Most Foolish

Dylan Klebold, along with his friend Eric Harris, shot and killed 13 people and injured 23 others in April, 1999 in Columbine High School, before they turned their guns on themselves. My family moved into the same Colorado neighborhood as the Klebold family in July 1998, seven months before the tragedy. Read More

Wise and Foolish Leaders

When I was an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University in the late 1950's, the university's president was Milton Eisenhower, whose older brother Dwight was then president of the United States. Influenced by the media, I considered "Ike" to have ordinary intelligence, because his performances at press conferences were inelegant and characterized by tortured syntax. Read More

Foolish Sitcom Characters

The Seinfeld sitcom, one of the most popular TV shows of all time, was described by its creators and principals as "a show about nothing". Read More

Stephen Greenspan, Ph.D., is emeritus professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado.

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