Like Occam’s Razor, Hanlon’s Razor is a guiding principle for how to shave away that which is unnecessary or unhelpful. In this case, rather than hypotheses or theories, Hanlon’s Razor’s focus is people’s motives. As commonly stated,
“Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.”
While it’s true that, economically speaking, decision making is affected by jealousy and the desire to do better relative to one’s peers, people mostly do not go around looking for ways to screw you over or make you miserable. If those things happen, it’s significantly more likely that the responsible party just wasn’t considering you or the possible outcome or consequences.
This is the crux of Hanlon’s Razor. If you get slighted, don’t jump to the conclusion that it’s been done intentionally.
Expressions of the razor go back to Goethe in 1774. Robert J. Hanlon, a person of no other renown, submitted his own wording for a 1980 book of jokes related to Murphy’s Law, and due to Stigler’s Law, has had his name ascribed to the principle thanks to the ascent of the Internet. The citation of this eponym’s etymology came from Quentin Stafford-Fraser, the creator of VNC and the first webcam, after having appeared in Eric S. Raymond’s Jargon File as early as 1990.