A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
The real sting here isn't mere mockery—Adams is exposing how rational people make a category error by assuming foolishness equals a lack of cleverness, when it actually means freedom from rational constraints. A fool unburdened by logic or social convention can spot loopholes a thoughtful designer would never imagine, precisely *because* they don't respect the intended use. Consider the person who discovers they can bypass your security system not through technical skill but by doing something so absurd—like propping open a door with a brick during a fire drill—that no one thought to prevent it. The lesson cuts deeper than "expect the unexpected"; it's that good design requires imagining minds working from entirely foreign assumptions, not just smarter ones.
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