Hanlon's Razor
Don't assume malice when incompetence, carelessness, or ignorance is a perfectly good explanation.
What it means
Hanlon's Razor is the principle that we should not attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity, carelessness, ignorance, or simple oversight. When someone does something that harms or irritates us, our first instinct is often to assume they did it deliberately - that they meant to hurt us, undermine us, or disrespect us. Hanlon's Razor suggests we pump the brakes and consider a simpler explanation: maybe they just weren't thinking.
This isn't about being naive or excusing bad behaviour. It's about accuracy. Most of the time, the people who annoy, inconvenience, or hurt us aren't scheming against us - they're distracted, tired, ignorant of the impact, or simply not very good at what they're doing. Assuming malice where none exists doesn't just make you wrong - it makes you angrier, more defensive, and more likely to escalate a situation that could have been resolved with a simple conversation.
Hanlon's Razor is a close relative of Occam's Razor (prefer the simpler explanation), but specifically applied to human behaviour. It's a tool for staying sane in a world where other people's actions regularly affect you, and where your default interpretation of those actions shapes your relationships, your stress levels, and your worldview.
In the real world
A colleague doesn't reply to your email for three days. You start constructing narratives: they're ignoring you, they don't respect your work, they're deliberately making you wait. Then they finally respond, apologising - they'd been off sick and came back to 200 unread emails. Hanlon's Razor would have saved you three days of irritation. The simplest explanation - they were busy, overwhelmed, or unavailable - was the right one, as it usually is.
The thought to hold onto
Before you decide someone is out to get you, consider whether they might just be out to lunch. Most slights aren't intentional. Most oversights aren't strategic. Most people are too wrapped up in their own lives to be plotting against yours.