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Comment by apohn | Hacker News Reader

There was a German General who classified people into 4 categories based on if they were hardworking, lazy, smart, or stupid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord#Cl...

His comment on Type 3 - "One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage."

I once had a manager and his manager who were both like this. I've never seen a dynamic duo with more skill in turning a group of good ICs in a bunch of dancing monkeys churning out pointless work. But hey, while problems solved was zero, number of PowerPoints in the shared drive was over 9000.

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A classic example of Type 3 is Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. So determined to work hard and do his duty that he was completely unwilling to delegate, with no effort spared in coming up with the worst possible solution to every problem.

> But hey, while problems solved was zero, number of PowerPoints in the shared drive was over 9000.

Vegeta would be impressed.

>Vegeta would be impressed.

lol. I'm glad somebody got this reference. It's pretty dated at this point. Nowadays it's all about people going bald after working out.

I seem to recall Oprah having some issue with the number as well…

There was a German General who classified people into 4 categories based on if they were hardworking, lazy, smart, or stupid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord#Cl...

Interesting read of his wikipedia.

He is regarded as "an undisguised opponent" of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

As far as epitaphs go, you could certainly do worse.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call them stupid but I once had a colleague—not my manager thankfully—whose approach to doing everything was essentially shotgun frantic activity.

>I wouldn’t go so far as to call them stupid

When I think about the workplace, I've usually interpret this version of stupid as a way of saying that there is a type of personality where the compulsion to do something completely overrides asking themselves if that thing should be done in the first place. The end result is exactly what you said - shotgun frantic activity because everything needs to be done and everything is a top priority. They are not stupid per se, but they create an astonishing amount of stupid and wasteful activity.

Unfortunately there are people who really are just stupid as well. I'm sure in the Armed forces that can have deathly consequences.

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