[lanstin]

Barry Apppelman, for a long time the boss of all the Unix engineers, said malice was preferable to incompetence because malice would take breaks.

[rdtsc]

However malice is directed. When it doesn’t take breaks it does a lot more damage usually.

One can argue malice can be controlled with incentives at some level, though.

[bmsan]

So can "stupidity". If something is possible for a human to do, it's something that's possible for any sufficiently-enabled/supported human to do. I've heard it put that the inability to understand or do something is a matter of not having acquired the necessary prerequisites. So, the incentives to control stupidity are the incentives to acquire and apply the prerequisite skills or knowledge.

[vasvir]

Yes and in addition malice is enough times predictable while incompetence is just a quantum void where the probabilities are inverted and your hard earned intuition doesn't help you...

[lanstin]

I don't seem to be able to edit this anymore, but there is a grievous gap in the writing: "Barry Appelman, for a long time the boss of all the Unix engineers at AOL."

[specproc]

Hmm, sure, but if you want to spot malice, look for the one not taking breaks.