muddle-headed

An ancient Chinese ruler known as the Muddle-Headed Marquis was buried with a bronze mirror trimmed in paintings of fierce beasts, which he was convinced would bring prosperity and “dispel evil and inauspiciousness.”

The electrician was as “confused and muddle-headed, as battered and beaten, as the violent men I had interviewed on death row,” Dr. Lewis concluded.

That opening shot, for example, is a demonstration of impressive filmmaking skill tethered to a dubious cause, a sign that what follows will be slick, aggressive and muddle-headed.

Muddle-headed, I went to the wrong parking lot.

Milton Friedman, who popularized the notion of shareholder primacy and pursuit of profit, once lamented that business leaders are often “incredibly shortsighted and muddle-headed in matters that are outside their businesses but affect the possible survival of business in general.”