"Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves"
About this Quote
McMurtry’s line has the clean snap of a frontier aphorism: short, unsentimental, and quietly savage. The target isn’t stupidity in the abstract; it’s incompetence as a social weapon. “Invariably” is the tell. He’s not describing a one-off screwup but a dependable law of human systems: the person least equipped to do the job rarely pays the price in proportion to the damage.
The subtext is about insulation. Incompetence survives because institutions often cushion it - through hierarchy, politeness, bureaucracy, or the American habit of treating “trying your best” as a substitute for doing it well. McMurtry’s phrasing also refuses the comforting morality play where the bungler learns a lesson. Instead, the lesson lands on everyone nearby: coworkers cleaning up messes, families absorbing chaos, communities paying for bad governance, readers watching plots driven by preventable errors.
Context matters: McMurtry wrote about American mythmaking and the gap between romance and reality, especially in the West. His worlds are full of capable people forced to triage the consequences of others’ bravado, laziness, or self-delusion. The quote reads like an antidote to the heroic narrative. It suggests that what really shapes lives isn’t just courage or vision, but competence - the unglamorous ability to do what you said you’d do without exporting your confusion to strangers.
It works because it’s accusatory without being ornate: a moral judgment disguised as an observation, inviting you to scan your own life for the person whose errors you’ve been quietly budgeting for.
The subtext is about insulation. Incompetence survives because institutions often cushion it - through hierarchy, politeness, bureaucracy, or the American habit of treating “trying your best” as a substitute for doing it well. McMurtry’s phrasing also refuses the comforting morality play where the bungler learns a lesson. Instead, the lesson lands on everyone nearby: coworkers cleaning up messes, families absorbing chaos, communities paying for bad governance, readers watching plots driven by preventable errors.
Context matters: McMurtry wrote about American mythmaking and the gap between romance and reality, especially in the West. His worlds are full of capable people forced to triage the consequences of others’ bravado, laziness, or self-delusion. The quote reads like an antidote to the heroic narrative. It suggests that what really shapes lives isn’t just courage or vision, but competence - the unglamorous ability to do what you said you’d do without exporting your confusion to strangers.
It works because it’s accusatory without being ornate: a moral judgment disguised as an observation, inviting you to scan your own life for the person whose errors you’ve been quietly budgeting for.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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