I’m a big fan of aphorisms. One that I find myself pulling out in many situations, and which has served me well, is:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.“
I do prefer to use the word “ignorance”, though, in place of stupidity, at least in the context of software product development.
According to Wikipedia, this is know variously as “Hanlon’s Razor” or “Heinlein’s Razor”.
I see from Wikipedia that there is a Brit version, which I quite like:
“Cock-up before conspiracy“
