Clever and Lazy Beats Clever and Busy

“They ranked officers in four ways; clever and energetic, stupid and energetic, stupid and lazy and … clever and lazy? Clever and lazy, yeah. The most dangerous people were the stupid and energetic people because they’ll always do things and because they’re stupid they’ll do stupid things. They actually ranked the clever and lazy people quite highly because they tended to think before doing something, you know, “is there an easier way of doing this”.”

““The German General Staff [the story goes] used to divide army officers into four categories: the clever and lazy, the clever and hard-working, the stupid and lazy and the stupid and hard-working. The best Generals, the Germans found, came from the clever and lazy; the best staff officers emerged from the clever and hard-working; the stupid and lazy could be made useful as regimental officers; but the stupid and hard-working were a menace, to be disposed of as soon as possible.””