I find the quote “never attribute to malice what could be explained by incompetence” to be woefully overused.
People are often petty, mean spirited, and act irrationally. To throw your hands up and say “hey it was a mistake!” Without further reflection on the intention and purpose of an action is setting yourself up for failure.
This does not mean do not be charitable. This means don’t be lazy and rely on a poorly formed quote as an axiom to live your life by. Dig deeper.
I don't think this is the be way it works. Maybe at the first time I will not attribute to malice if it can be explained by incompetence.
But that individual will either way land on my "observe a little more carefully"-list which might give me more data to decide if they act maliciously or just incompetently.
What isn't successful at all is when you constantly suspect all others are doing everything for the most evil reason possible. Because this is really not the case in pracise and also has a cost that you need to carry.
Edit: although in this example one could argue explaining it by incompetence alone will need some major mental gymnastics.
People are often petty, mean spirited, and act irrationally. To throw your hands up and say “hey it was a mistake!” Without further reflection on the intention and purpose of an action is setting yourself up for failure.
This does not mean do not be charitable. This means don’t be lazy and rely on a poorly formed quote as an axiom to live your life by. Dig deeper.