it would become an exclusive-or, if you were to adopt the kind of definition of 'incompetent' that you might find in a Raymond Smullyan puzzle
Yeah, I've met some people who seem to do the opposite of what they intend, rather than just be ineffectual, but I think SURELY it can't be consistent enough to rely on...
The evil question is also interesting. I think if someone is purely selfish, being competent is better: they CAN work reliably with other people, and if they run the country, they may see the benefits of a decent economy and have no incentive to randomly ban stuff for the sake of it.
But if someone is capricious or malicious, then everything they succeed in may make matters worse for everyone, so being incompetent is better.
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Date: 2014-02-17 02:35 pm (UTC)Yeah, I've met some people who seem to do the opposite of what they intend, rather than just be ineffectual, but I think SURELY it can't be consistent enough to rely on...
The evil question is also interesting. I think if someone is purely selfish, being competent is better: they CAN work reliably with other people, and if they run the country, they may see the benefits of a decent economy and have no incentive to randomly ban stuff for the sake of it.
But if someone is capricious or malicious, then everything they succeed in may make matters worse for everyone, so being incompetent is better.