TSAW is purposely not intended to be a humorous site, although by the nature of some of the stories you will read, you might find yourself shaking your head in disbelief and laughing.  It's really a site dedicated to collecting, investigating and reporting stories that help us understand why it appears that some people are incredibly successful when by all expectations they barely have the intelligence to BREATHE!  Our main features will point out stupidity in the world that's around us - partners, family, friends, sometimes stupidity by entities of power - managers, companies, technologies, sometimes, even in our government servants.

Coming features will include academic and quasi-academic articles by authors genuinely trying to determine the cause and effects of the stupid actions we observe.  There are other great sites about how stupid people do us favors, like, maybe removing themselves from the gene pool: www.DarwinAwards.com.  There are many, many other sites about stupid people being jackasses and just plain idiots to make a video for TV or YouTube. This site is about stupid people and situations where those people think they have thought through the situation, then picked the dumbest option, and yet somehow they still prevail!  The ironies are painful. TSAW is about those ironic situations.

Will you find some of the irony or situations humorous?  Who wouldn’t laugh at the statistics in an article that helped inspired this site:

Authors, Justin Kruger and David Dunning (Cornell professors) received an Ig Noble Prize for their study that found that people who tested at or below the 12th percentile of intelligence, surprisingly estimated themselves to be in the upper third of intelligence! Whether they studied prisoners or college students, many stupid people often misjudge their cognitive abilities by a magnitude!

Right now, we are collecting TSAW stories for this new, exciting website. We are sure everyone has a "The Stupids are Winning" story to share. If you want to get in on the ground floor and be memorialized amongst our first authors, either Click the ENTER STORY button below or email your story to:

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It’s our plan to track and reward authors with trinkets, tchotckes, T-shirts, or whatever, if we publish the story (in print or on a t-shirt.)

Stories can be first person (your own experience), something you witnessed (at work, in a product, even on the street), or your version of a story published in the news or other media (send the links or references.) 

The three points in a story (besides interesting) are: somebody or something had to do something stupid, not an accident, a mistake or because they are missing special knowledge; those people actually get their way, prevail, win or survive to oppress others with their stupidity; and last the irony: they are no wiser, didn't learn from the mistake or are blisfully unaware of how they mess with the fabric of the universe.

In the next few weeks we will post the stories for voting by the site visitors.  If your story ends up on our featured list, on a monthly basis, we plan to reward your efforts once we get the merchandising portion of the site up.

We don't mind naming public companies for their problems but prefer to leave individual names and small companies anonymous (unless already published in the press.)   Provide us with your email and some unique identifier so that we can contact you for confirmation and or prizes.  That information will not be published.

Enter Story

[COMPANY] So last month I applied for a CapitalOne credit card with the intention of getting a second card for my daughter who is heading off to college.  The card is approved and then I get an email asking if I would like to customize my Image Card.  Why not?  I've had my mug on my CitiBank Card for years confident that it would be less valuable to a thief.

Card arrives, nice picture - old man with glasses and a beard.  I authorize my daughter for the account and look around the CO website for how to upload her picture onto her new CapitalOne card.  Guess what? Every authorized user on the account, myself, my wife, and my daughter, has their own name on the card - but they only allow MY picture on their cards!  Online support says I can't even change the picture for another 30 days!  I hope my daughter doesn't need books….. she'll probably have a credit card by Christmas!  TSAW
JF 8/11
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[OWNER] I was working for the Internet side of a small print advertising agency.  Print newspapers, unfortunately, are dying a slow death, 2-3% revenue and advertising drop per year. Advertising agencies sell for about 50%-60% of the previous year's net profit.  Nearly broke, the place was worth about $500K. At the time it was difficult to keeping the doors open.

Somehow the owner landed a great URL and a few SEO links and all of a sudden we had publicly listed companies coming out of the woodwork making offers to buy the online business.  After a ton of negotiations we sold the company for $25 million!  The owner, well past his prime, had never bothered to even learn the Internet. He could barely talk revenue to the buyers, let alone SEO, unique visitors or clicks.  Doubling down stupid: with his proceeds he went out and bought another print advertising agency!   Apparently he prefers the slow death he is oblivious to, over the risks of new technology.  Today he likes to hang around entrpreneur meetings bragging about the deal.  Great example of the kind of person who got lucky once, and figures that certifies him as a genius.     TSAW
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[WORK] I’m a scientist for the government in California. I designed a remediation system that was so good it was eventually adopted by the other five regions nationally. Since I had been lead I was invited to a conference in Washington to accept a recognition award. My department head cited budget problems and said there were not enough funds for the trip.  Coincidently, he went to Washington for some reporting and went to the conference to accept my award!  When he came back, mysteriously the plaque had his name on it and hung outside his office.  He doesn't even have a science degree!