In this interview, Prof. Syed Farid Alatas talks about the different ways intellectuals have conceptualised folly and/or stupidity. The two intellectuals referred to in this interview are Syed Hussein Alatas and Ali Shariati, who both conceptualised different characteristics of folly according to the degree of folly, the identification of the perpetrators of folly, and the victims of the act or being folly. Syed Hussein Alatas wrote about the many aspects of stupidity which include ‘jadong’ and ‘bebalism’, and these concepts are compared to Ali Shariati’s conception of stupidity called the ‘estehmar’.