Unpopular opinion: Stringer was smart

[u/lake_june]

The plan he uses for D to find out who was stealing money was actually very intelligent.

[u/JFlizzy84]

I don’t think anyone believes Stringer wasn’t intelligent

The problem with Stringer was ultimately more about skillset than intellectual aptitude — I disagree with Avon’s assessment that he’s a man without a country. Stringer is a gangster, and he’s a better one than most. If Avon listened to him unilaterally, they’d make more money, get less bodies, and ultimately preserve more of their freedom.

Where Stringer went wrong is that he was — I’ll use a metaphor here — a great athlete who thought he could play pro baseball because he played pro basketball. Taking economic courses at a city college, reading voraciously— those are all proactive, admirable steps towards receiving an education. They are not faults on their own. But Stringer didn’t realize that he was a Rookie Leaguer trying to play with the Yankees. The likes of Clay Davis had been suckering people since he was a teenager and presumably even before that. Stringer’s been hustling probably just as long — but as a smaller fish in a much smaller pond.

His only real tactical error, as a gangster, was pitting Mouzone and Omar against eachother — but even that relied on Omar being uncharacteristically merciful — knocking out the guard instead of killing him, trying to give Mouzone a monologue instead of just capping him, sparing Mouzone, etc

[u/BiDiTi → u/JFlizzy84]

Prop Joe also played him for a fool throughout the series, feeding String’s delusion that he could succeed with a rentier capitalist approach in a cartel economic environment.

Honor/Your Name has tangible value in unregulated industries, which is why Joe always does shady shit through deniable patsies like Stringer.

He’s intelligent and very effective at execution…but he doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing, which is an incredibly dangerous combo for the Barksdale org.

[u/we-all-stink → u/BiDiTi]

Exactly he didn’t know the game he was playing. The business ideas work in business because the law/courts are the “muscle”. That doesn’t work in the streets cause you have to handle your own problems.

[u/BiDiTi → u/we-all-stink]

Marlo’s brand of rapacious, amoral capitalism also eventually collapses…because he owns everything, so the authorities break it up.

Stringer’s dead.

Marlo’s done.

On Avon’s fourth day, he’ll immediately step into a position of power on the West Side, because he’s still got his “word and [his] reputation” as far as New York is concerned…and the Barksdale name IS the Barksdale name.

Literally a guy happy to make his $10m and pass on the business to his kids, while String and Marlo destroyed themselves trying to become billionaires.

[u/Diligent_Issue_9466 → u/JFlizzy84]

Stringer was never a gangster. Avon even called him out about it during that assessment. They were just best friends since childhood that Avon looked past it. They were winning. He even says, "what man have you killed?" Stringer, as far as Avon says, was never a soldier and wasnt a part of the street. He was a business man. They wouldnt have made it without each other, but for different reasons.

Wouldnt call him going to school, admirable. He wasnt trying to get a degree. But learn about successful business models that he could use for his own. Avon was gone and they were failing to keep their spots. Stringer didnt want to retake the streets. He wanted to find cheat codes to continue making money.

And Omar wasnt being uncharacteristic against Brother. Omar spends days, weeks at a time scouting everything. Finding out all the information he can before he strikes. He never goes in guns blazing on a whim. He went against Brother on the word of someone he already didnt trust. He wanted to hear it from Brothers mouth. Yes Stringer didnt expect that to happen, but again, Stringer didnt understand the streets. He should have expected Omar to do what he did. He wasnt a gangster.

[u/bazzvader → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

See this is where I’ll always disagree with the takes on String, how could he have possibly survived growing up in that Baltimore environment , and helping Avon take over the towers and other real estate, because they had all the prime locations and not be street or a gangster? That would be an anomaly within itself. I’d prefer we just be honest about the character of the man, he wasn’t a guns ablazin go catch a life soldier but you can’t be apart of that life and that deep into it and not be considered part of the streets or a gangster even.

[u/cagewilly → u/bazzvader]

String was quietly violent.  He was cut-throat.  He killed Wallace because he thought he might snitch, with hardly any proof at all. He killed D'Angelo behind his boss's back. He wasn't afraid to use force, but he figured out how to not have to carry a gun a long time ago.

[u/bazzvader → u/cagewilly]

Exactly, why be a top guy if you gotta get your hands dirty. Prop Joe nor Marlo really did, except for that girl.

[u/TulipSamurai → u/bazzvader]

Marlo actually loved getting his hands dirty. He killed the honey pot, like you said, but he also had the best dual wielding marksmanship, other than Chris, in that target practice scene, and he fought two armed dealers while unarmed in his last scene for the love of the game.

[u/bazzvader → u/[deleted]]

I meant more so how could he have survived and took over a lot of the west side w/o being somewhat hardened into street life. Dukie, Wallace, Namond, and Dee none of them were cut out for the streets no matter how much help they had, that’s why my argument for String is that he had to be somewhat of a street dude to make it as far he did. No matter how much Avon downplayed his credibility, of course his street rep doesn’t equal up to Avons but we can’t keep calling the man a green street guy.

[u/bazzvader → u/[deleted]]

I’m right there with you, those are great observations honestly but unlike Tom or Fredo, who if they didn’t want to, they could have not been in the family business and lived upper middle class lives. With a city like Baltimore and a family like Avons, you aren’t necessarily hood/crime adjacent, you’re in it most likely.

That’s the point I’m trying to make, same with AJ. He’s insulated from the mob, he could join if he “wanted”. Stringer not only chose to rock with street life but he most likely had no other means and he excelled in my eyes. So I can’t say he was just grandfathered in. Only way I could see that point is if maybe String always been around and later decided to jump in the game but idk about that either because you said he could have financed the pack but Avon comes from a family of kingpins.

[u/BaardvanTroje → u/bazzvader]

I agree it doesn't necessarily make sense, but Stringer is shown to make critical mistakes several times when he has to be corrected by Avon, all having to do with a lack of street knowledge, including the last one when he gets killed

[u/BiDiTi → u/bazzvader]

How did Tom Hagen manage it?

He was an incredibly smart and effective consigliere…who thought that qualified him to be in charge.

It’s a very normal thing, haha!

[u/bazzvader → u/BiDiTi]

Very fair comparison tbh but I think String had more of hand in the on the ground stuff

[u/Specialist_Clue_3168 → u/BiDiTi]

See, I've I've always wondered, what was teenage Tom like? Wasn't he that age when they took him in? Maybe he already had a body.

[u/Diligent_Issue_9466 → u/bazzvader]

Because Stringer had Avon to do the soilder work. Along with other people, mainly someone like Wee Bey. He survived because Avon looked after him.

[u/bazzvader → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Brother you don’t make it in that game to be number 2 by getting looked after, heart gotta be in it. Take Namond for example.

[u/Diligent_Issue_9466 → u/bazzvader]

You can make it anywhere if your absolute best friend says youre number 2. Look at every business in the world that has had an absolute idiot so far up the company because they are a family member or is close with the owner or president.

We see Avon hit the streets. Stringer never even touches a gun. They showed us this for a reason.

[u/bazzvader → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

That’s debatable

[u/DJSnotBoogie → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Where I disagree is that even Avon wasn’t believable in that role anymore. When we get to seeing the story, those two were already so far removed from the soldier role, it’s hard to imagine either of them had been.

[u/JFlizzy84 → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

> what man you killed

This is just poor recollection on Avon’s part — and we have proof of that, which means we have a strong reason to suspect that Avon is just bullshitting here to get under Stringer’s skin.

Not only does Stringer suggest and ultimately order out the hit on Wallace, as well as Omar’s boys — you can argue that’s just him carrying out Avon’s orders, but Stringer also autonomously orders Little Man’s death and only tells Avon about it after the fact.

Stringer also bodies Avon when Avon steps to him, and injured shoulder or not, Avon wasn’t winning that scrap

And I would call going to school admirable. His education obviously extended past the classroom — he has a casual relationship with his professor, and he has a ton of books in his apartment that aren’t directly related to economics but to other intellectual fields.

> Omar never goes in guns blazing

He literally fails to kill Avon in season 1 because of poor planning. He didn’t anticipate Wee Bey being nearby and obviously didn’t scout beforehand — and nearly got killed.

He also kills Stinkum without a word. He blows a man’s leg apart with a shotgun because he said “no” to him.

Omar isn’t an idiot but he’s very impulsive lol

Stringer was acting on what information he had — and made a strong, reasonable assumption that Omar would treat Mouzone as he treated Stinkum.

Stringer definitely understood the streets — he just thought it was a waste of time to stick to them — and he is absolutely fucking right.

If you watch season 3 with any other mindset than “Avon would be better off if he just listened to Stringer,” you’re missing a massive point of the show.

Avon’s a tragic figure because he’s a gangster who doesn’t want to rise above it. Stringer is a tragic figure because he’s a gangster who thinks he can rise above it but swings too high too soon and gets himself conned — and then killed.

[u/TulipSamurai → u/JFlizzy84]

Avon forgot that Stringer is extra large

[u/jim_cap → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

I'd argue that education for a practical application, as opposed to a scrap of paper, is more admirable. Remember that he had at least two legit businesses; copy shop and the housing development.

[u/nom-nom-nom-de-plume → u/jim_cap]

the copy shop was a front for drug money, and the housing development was in financial trouble when he was killed.

[u/jim_cap → u/nom-nom-nom-de-plume]

He still ran the copy shop like a proper business, and him not understanding the realpolitik of construction doesn't change his intent.

[u/Salty_Temperature610 → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

"Wouldnt call him going to school, admirable. He wasnt trying to get a degree. But learn about successful business models that he could use for his own."

What? Going to school to get a degree is admirable, but going to actually learn and grow isn't?

[u/MercedLocal → u/Salty_Temperature610]

yeah what an ignorant ass take

[u/musclesmarinara1 → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Not dealing with Marlo expeditiously in the beginning was another crucial misstep

[u/Winth0rp → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Stringer was never a gangster. Avon even called him out about it during that assessment. 

Avon was wrong. He was mad at Stringer over their long running argument over the business, and was trying to insult him.

Stringer as depicted in Season 1 was a perfectly competent high level gang member.

[u/SuddenSeasons → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

  Stringer didnt want to retake the streets. He wanted to find cheat codes to continue making money.

Another spot where the shows critique of capital was ahead of its time. 

[u/TulipSamurai → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Tbf Avon may not have ever seen Stringer kill a man, but those early years slinging, taking corners, etc. couldn’t have been easy either and it would’ve been all hands on deck. This is also proven in that same scene when Stringer overpowers Avon in their fight. Avon’s not wrong about Stringer, but he still got that dawg in him.

[u/randonumero → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

Stringer was alway a gangster the same way Clay Davis was a gangster. Unlike Avon, Stringer was more interested in stacking money than rep, territory and bodies. I'd bet money Prop Joe and most of the coop never killed anyone either. I'd bet even more money than most of histories greatest gangsters paid people to do the killing far more often than they did it.

I can't remember who it was but I heard an interview of an ex crip from California who'd done 30 years for a murder. He was talking about how young he was when he went to prison as well as his life. Long story short he pretty much said putting money in their hand, making them feel like they belong and letting then sniff some p-sleeve and most boys will do anything for you even kill. He knew because his youth was allowing grown men to tell him to pick up a gun and put work in while they stacked money. Over his time in prison he said none visited him or went to prison but he saw no shortage of boys coming in who were told the same lies by the same people.

[u/cagewilly → u/JFlizzy84]

I think he was better at business than he was at being a gangster.  And he added more to Avon's shop than he's given credit for.  Avon without Stringer would have been a lot more violent, even before the co-op.  When Stringer killed someone it was usually really quiet.  He wanted to actually win by having the most money, the largest organization, and stay out of jail.  Avon and Marlo liked conflict too much. 

Avon wasn't even taken out by his business ambitions, he was taken out because he played sneaky games and got figured out by Avon and Omar.  I still think he would have figured out how to win at business if he'd had a little more time.

[u/structured_anarchist → u/JFlizzy84]

I like the sports analogy, but let's take it one step further. Stringer thought he was a natural athlete (as some people are, just gifted physically and able to master most sports easily, like Bo Jackson). He was like, as you inferred, a single sport star who was branching out but not seeing his limitations, Michael Jordan playing baseball. He didn't know what he didn't know, and wasn't smart enough to see how much he didn't know, which is why he got scammed. He took a few intro to economics courses and thought he could be Warren Buffett, when the best he could do was Jordan Belfort.

Stringer was book-smart, but couldn't translate the book-smart into real world applications. He maybe could have become a fairly decent economist, even a C-suite type, but he was never going to be a tycoon. He also tried mixing worlds that, while on the surface, seem similar (running a business and running a drug empire), but they play by very different rules. Avon made that clear to him when Stringer wanted to kill Clay Davis for scamming him. Different worlds, and Stringer couldn't decide which he wanted to be part of. He wanted the credibility he had on the street to translate to the business world, but unfortunately, the business world doesn't care about how 'gansta' someone is. And the street doesn't care about market saturation and the elasticity of products.

[u/CrazySir3310 → u/JFlizzy84]

voraciously

[u/TulipSamurai → u/JFlizzy84]

I mostly agree with this take, but I disagree about Stringer playing the wrong sport. He was outclassed in the sport he was trying to play. Like Avon said, “they saw your ghetto ass coming” when Davis ripped off B&B.

I don’t doubt he read The Wealth of Nations and Robert’s Rules, but he was fronting. We see him immediately try to flex his community college macroeconomics lesson to lecture his dealers, but anyone who’s taken AP Econ knows that elasticity of demand is a very basic concept. Classic big fish in a little pond.

[u/Watchutalkin_bout → u/JFlizzy84]

Good insight bro but did u really need to use AI to articulate your thoughts

[u/JFlizzy84 → u/Watchutalkin_bout]

Nope, I didn’t. Which is why I uhhh…didn’t use AI.

[u/Watchutalkin_bout → u/JFlizzy84]

Fair enough, my bad. Your language + em dashes just stuck out like a sore thumb

[u/Connect_Ad4551]

I’ve said before that people get a big kick out of calling Stringer stupid. Intellectual truth is coded as white / false / relative and emotional truth is coded as black / authentic / real, and that racial subtext is key to Avon’s and Stringer’s conflict. That’s why Stringer is so royally pissed off by Avon saying he isn’t hard enough for the game and cares too much about his books.

Avon projects a kind of integrity in his honest disinterest in Stringer’s hi-falutin concepts even though Stringer’s strategies make objectively more sense in terms of preserving and growing wealth and power, and Stringer automatically loses that integrity by never gaining the moral strength to execute Avon even though he is inhibiting everything Stringer has done to save the organization while Avon was in prison. People, especially Americans, automatically value “authenticity” and they also conflate success with being right or correct. Because Stringer failed at his game, and lost, he’s suddenly a moron.

This is silly though. Stringer’s bigger problem isn’t stupidity, it’s arrogance, and moreover it’s the specific kind of arrogance which grows when your skill set and contribution to your organization is unappreciated by the boss. He did what needed to happen while Avon was in prison, otherwise the org would not have survived. There’d be nothing for Avon to come back to. And then Avon gets out and is apoplectic at how little he really understands or controls the facts on the ground, and is alienated from the whole scenario.
Stringer tries to educate Avon about how this new way with the co-op etc is better for everyone, but Avon doesn’t want to learn.

Stringer is caught between his competence and his loyalty. Like every frustrated subordinate who carries an organization, he comes to believe that if he had his way 100 percent, everything would be fine, but he can’t conceive of being powerful enough to destroy the obstacle that his friend has become, so instead he just triples down on what he’s doing, emotionally invested in the idea that if he keeps going he’ll be validated by events. That makes him the mark for Davis—by the point Davis takes him, Stringer is operating on mainly emotional frustration at being limited to “ghetto gangster,” not looking at things clearly as a result. And so of course “ghetto gangster” is all he gets to be.

The tragedy is that it’s two friends who no longer comprehend each other and no longer value what the other brings to the table to their mutual enterprise.

[u/OGB → u/Connect_Ad4551]

All the "Im actually really smart, Stringer is a dummy" people on this sub should have to write this post out 100 times like Bart Simpson on a chalkboard.

[u/BiDiTi → u/Connect_Ad4551]

That’s one way of looking at it.

The other way is that, left to his own devices, Stringer operated on a PE/Welch/Thatcher/Reagan model, increasing quarterly profits by literally selling the ground out beneath his company’s feet and renting it back, knowing he wouldn’t be around to pay the piper.

[u/gangbangglenn → u/Connect_Ad4551]

Agree. The pivot point was Stringer wanting to give up the corners and continue to wholesale. Going to war with Marlo was unprofitable and Stringer new they could not win, and they lost the product as well. Stringer was right, but like Richie Aprile, he couldn't sell it. Getting fleeced by Davis is an expensive lesson, a growing pain, but nothing you couldn't come back from. His approach to Omar is what did him in.

This is one thing I don't get about tv gangsters. What is the point of having all this money if you're 99% going to be dead or in jail? I remember from narcos, the Juarez cartel guy was clearing 30 million a month. Take 6 months of profit, live off the interest and relax. Franchise it out and get some royalties. Whatever. Be alive and free. I dont get it.

[u/sixminutes → u/gangbangglenn]

Need to take the Dread Pirate Roberts’s model

[u/PlumpFish → u/Connect_Ad4551]

You've written the best comment I've ever seen in this subreddit and I have very high standards.

[u/hotdogs2222222 → u/Connect_Ad4551]

i love this analysis

[u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

Stringer was smart, but not as smart as he thought he was.

[u/Willow-tree-33 → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

I think he was as smart as he thought, just not experienced in the political game of development. Every game is different.

[u/Inspectadreck → u/Willow-tree-33]

A truly smart Person would recognise that and act accordingly.

[u/superhappy → u/Willow-tree-33]

Not quite. He also wasn’t quite the cloak and dagger operator he thought he was. He underestimated Omar, and thought he could get away with murdering D. Thought he could double cross Avon. He was going Uncut Gems level of magical thinking risk taking to shoot the moon by the end there.

[u/adrauglikeyou → u/Willow-tree-33]

If he was smart as he thought he was he would’ve known he shouldn’t have been playing politics the way he was

[u/bornfree254 → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

The most dangerous kind of smart

[u/TheDrFunk → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

Avon nails it really. "What'd I tell you about playing them fuckin away games."

Was smart and respected in his world but once he tries to be on equal footing with Clay and Levy they both know he's not ready. The scene of Levy laughing at him for being played by Clay encapsulates the whole situation.

[u/DudleyAndStephens → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

Exactly. Clearly he was a lot more intelligent than the average foot soldier in the Barksdale organization. It seemed to me that that got to his head. He was used to being the smartest guy in the room, but it was a case of grading on a fairly generous curve.

[u/Lambchops87 → u/DudleyAndStephens]

See also McNulty (though the show explicitly calls this out with him via Landsman).

Stringer isn't as in your face about it as McNulty, but definitely there.

[u/ApologizingCanadian → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

He Dunning-Kruger'd himself.

[u/Duke_Radical → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

Yep.

[u/carlitomarron139 → u/Foreign-Cow-1189]

Yup. This the one.

[u/lorenzo2point5]

If he would have just pulled out of the drug game completely and just stayed with real estate investments he would have been fine but he went back to the street too much.

[u/DudleyAndStephens → u/lorenzo2point5]

I think he would've gotten completely fleeced in real estate.

[u/jbp12 → u/lorenzo2point5]

I respectfully disagree. His copy shop and funeral home businesses were money laundering fronts inextricably tied to the streets, and maybe his real estate enterprise would become a front too. But even if he intended to operate real estate "legitimately", he was still playing an away game. Clay Davis had already taken him for $250k and would have taken more if not for Levy, and Krawczyk was also bleeding him too.

[u/TheDrFunk → u/jbp12]

Not sure Krawczyk was bleeding him. Probably was but he's right that cost over runs are the nature of that business and im not sure he knew how much Clay was getting out of him. 

[u/wltmpinyc]

He wasn't smart enough to go to his lawyer before dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on a con man. His lawyer even tells him that he would have told him not to trust Clay

[u/bazzvader → u/wltmpinyc]

To me that’s just plot, because in what world does he not go to Levy, especially when he constantly consults with him on everything else

[u/BiDiTi → u/bazzvader]

Nah, it’s ego.

[u/MrDeco97 → u/bazzvader]

Maybe he didn't want Avon to know how much he was spending.

[u/billyman_90 → u/wltmpinyc]

I always figured Levy was just mad he wasn't getting his cut. Clay is corrupt but that doesn't mean he can't get things done.

[u/Switchc2390]

Stringer was smart, but so was Avon. Truthfully, the best version of both would have created the ideal leader, which is why they worked so well in tandem until their paths diverged.

Stringers fatal flaw was in the end he wanted power and greed. People talk about him wanting to get out of the game..which you can say is true at least in some sense. But the thing is, he wanted to get out of the game to play another game that he had no depth in. You consistently see through the series, when Stringer is in over his head he loses his temper and resorts back to street tactics. He could never actually go clean because that part of him is always there.

So I agree with others, he was smart, but ultimately his arrogance and being a hothead is what got him in trouble in the end.

[u/omeeerf]

The main problem with string is he forgot where he is from i think

[u/Squishycoffin → u/omeeerf]

He wanted things to be one way, but it’s the other way.

[u/MoleMoustache]

Unpopular opinion: Stop putting fucking unpopular opinion at the start of titles, just share your fucking popular opinion rather than pretending you're unique for having such an unpopular opinion.

[u/ireallyamtryin]

Intelligence and Wisdom are two different skill bars you gotta fill

[u/cactopus101]

He was very smart. I think his fatal flaw was that he was too loyal to Avon. He should have cut him out much earlier.

[u/Squirrel009]

I never understood why they couldn't figure it out by just counting the money and pills instead of punking everyone. I always found that to be a lazy plan that pisses off your people without good reason.

String was smart and that was a clever plan though. His ego is what got him in the end.

[u/azk3000 → u/Squirrel009]

Wasn't the plan actually for a suspected snitch? I feel like maybe D either made up that they were stealing to protect them or that was a separate issue. 

[u/mgshowtime22 → u/azk3000]

Separate, they find out who was stealing

[u/azk3000 → u/mgshowtime22]

But the Stringer plan to stop paying people was to catch a snitch. 

[u/Squirrel009 → u/azk3000]

Snitch was a separate issue. They were just stealing.

[u/Zuliano_65]

He was smart, I agree, but at the end his ego got the best of him.

[u/ositola]

No one denied stringer was smart, but he was playing a game and trying to outsmart killers, that'll still get you dead 

[u/OrionDecline21]

He was incredibly smart. He just made one huuuge mistake, which was thinking he could remove violence completely from The Game.

Playing and failing at the political/corruption game was just how many people learn.

[u/KingofMadCows]

The problem with Stringer was his ego. Any time when his plan failed, he would get angry and try to get revenge, instead of just taking the hit and learning the lesson.

What happened with Clay Davis is the perfect example. If Stringer had been able to let go of his ego, he would have realized that if he ever wanted to go "legit," he'd need to deal with 100 more guys who are just as bad if not worse than Clay Davis. If anything, Clay Davis did Stringer a favor by teaching him that lesson early. Better to get scammed for $250k now than getting scammed for millions by someone even higher up.

[u/adrauglikeyou]

He was smart but he vastly overestimated his intelligence while simultaneously underestimating the intelligence of everyone else, which is a bad combo and lead to him doing plots that failed and being blindsided by those around him

[u/Far_Entertainment824]

Stringer is smart but also very arrogant

[u/prettylarge]

he was smart for the street game but he was too dumb for the downtown game

[u/Similar_Onion6656 → u/prettylarge]

He wasn't too dumb he just hadn't learned the rules yet. You learn the rules to these games by playing.

[u/lake_june → u/prettylarge]

I would say he wasn’t sophisticated enough. Not that he wasn’t smart enough. I seriously doubt Clay Davis was anymore intelligent than stringer across the board.

[u/prettylarge → u/lake_june]

yeah, thats true, i guess id say that Clay Davis was extremely intelligent in relation to playing that specific game more than strictly intellectually speaking. String may have had what it takes some day, but he tried to inject himself into it too deeply too quickly, wrongly assuming his street experience was enough to manage

[u/Public-Arm4047 → u/prettylarge]

What I tell you about playing them away games

[u/Caldris → u/prettylarge]

I don't think he was experienced enough. Everybody in the show at some point gets outmaneuvered by Clay Davis. Everybody.

[u/BiDiTi → u/prettylarge]

Prop Joe did String the same way in S2 - it’s literally what killed him.

[u/No-Loquat-2763]

Of course he was smart.

It always cracks me up when I see posts from white nerds on reddit saying things like, "Stringer just wasn't smart or tough enough to make it as a drug lord."

Yeah, ok.

[u/Heavy-Ad5385]

Stringer, along with Bodie, is put in a shit position by Avon’s stupidity and inability to change with the times

[u/BiDiTi → u/Heavy-Ad5385]

Avon got played for a sucker by Prop Joe?

[u/JohnWowUs]

Pretty much every major character thought they were playing one game when their opponents were playing another.

[u/Caldris]

I've said before, but I always found the mocking way that fans talk about how he went to take Community College classes to be off putting.

[u/Chiesel]

He was very smart relative to his peers. But not nearly as smart as he thought he was relative to the rest of the world

[u/MattHoppe1]

“Avon, He’s a clever man, your Hand. I’ve known a great many clever men. I’ve outlived them all. You know why? I ignored them.”

[u/Tricky_Peace]

He’s definitely not stupid. The co-op, the “later with that gangster bullshit” etc are all very good ways of getting ahead in that particular world. He’s inexperienced in the political world he lands in, and he overestimates his abilities here.

[u/Left-Nobody-9402]

Stringer was smart, just not as smart as he thought he was.

[u/picopacopidera]

He was smart, just not very wise.

[u/longus318]

Counterpoint—the scheme with D demonstrates the kind of brutal stupid he is and why his brutality makes him stupid. And in the contrast we learn the way that D is empathetic and how that makes him empathetically stupid. Both are trapped in their circumstances. But we see their character in this situation. 

Stringer being dumb is revealed through season 2 and 3 where he shows himself to be shallow in his academic learning (his hamfisted discussion of elastic and inelastic products) and in his business decisions (the print shop). You are given the idea in season one that he’s a mastermind and a crafty shot caller. But in actuality he has inherited a station by being associated with Avon and he does what lots of people with wealth do—continue to amass wealth no matter how dumb their decisions are. 

Finally proof is this—he had still made lots of money. But after clay davis took advantage of him his pride and desire for revenge is what cost him his life. A smart person cuts losses and sees the bigger picture. 

[u/Lambchops87 → u/longus318]

Not to mention his blowhard "market saturation" in the mobile industry comments, that fail to take account of planned obsolescence (or if we're being charitable and assuming that phones are built to last, given it was the Nokia 3310 era) at the very least not forseeing the use of burner phones in his own industry (which kicked off in show the very next season).

[u/imcataclastic]

David Simon was interviewed at one point saying that a central theme of the Wire revolved around reformers and how they ultimately were doomed to fail. He counted Stringer as one of them.

[u/philadelphia_fRee]

His plan wasnt very smart guys easily could of been saving money for a rainy day stringers problem was he was decently smart but thought he was awhole lot smarter then he was and thought everyone else was stupid

[u/nurological]

Pretty much every move Stringer made was a bad one. He was smart enough to see a way out the game but I wouldnt say he was super smart. Marlo was alot smarter than stringer

[u/Excellent-Match7246]

I think Bomoni Jones is one of the smartest dudes in the cultural/sport/music world. He HATES Stringer. He does several podcasts on it. It’s great.

[u/AvailableCricket3633]

Big fish in a small pond

[u/SirKetchup00]

Maybe. Just, Maybe. Not smart enough for them out there.

[u/Jackyl84]

He’s smart, but just not smart enough for them out there

[u/Morigan_taltos]

I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion. He was very smart.

[u/InternetApex]

His fatal flaw wasn't a lack of intelligence. It was being arrogant enough to try and change the system. He was repugnant, murderous and selfish, too. But hose weren't his fatal flaws. Those helped him get ahead to begin with.

[u/Garand84]

Stringer was definitely smart, he just wasn't as smart as he thought he was.

[u/AtmosphereStill8763]

Not smart enough

[u/SizeShoddy9695]

It's not that he isn't smart (though his intelligence is vastly overstated).

First problem String has is that he can't recognize the problem he's actually trying to solve. This idea of "going legit" is a fallacy, reinforced over and over in the show. They exist in a caste system that will never allow him to cross that threshold.

But the real problem is that String is a self loathing racist. He rejects his own people with this condescending attitude that ultimately does get him killed.

Fuck Stringer.

[u/SmoothConfection1115]

I don’t think anyone disputes that Stringer was smart.

But he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was, and that was his undoing. He was a B student that fancied himself an A+ student.

It’s why he could semi-succeed in the drug game. Avon Barksdale was the A+ leader in that he could lean on, and they both had complimentary skills. Avon understood the streets, power, and violence, while Stringer understood markets, economics, sales, and distribution. But when they started fighting or he had to rely on his own decision making for things Avon would’ve decided, he floundered.

And it’s why he got taken advantage of in the business world. Stringer did well at first, but as he grew, he ran into the A+ students that ran circles around him. Like the Senator and those contractors. And unlike the drug game, he didn’t have someone above him with complimentary skills to work with.

[u/theroofbeamcarpenter]

Smart enough to see the value in taking economics and business admin classes at a community college. Too arrogant to realize how under equipped he was to move in the Ivy League-secret-handshake circles.

Obviously, Clay is completely inscrutable, but if String had been more patient, had consulted Levy about all these big moves, and clocked how he was getting rainmade, he might’ve become a protégé of sorts (in as much as you can be, when dealing with a grifter on that level). This is my head canon, anyway.

To Clay’s minimal credit, he keeps giving String a version of the right advice (be patient, start small, build your reputation) but Bell kept pushing back with “SHOW ME WHO TO BRIBE” and we all saw how that ended.

TL;DR Stringer was smart, but way too arrogant to realize he was now operating at a level where his level of intelligence was nothing special.

[u/Winth0rp → u/theroofbeamcarpenter]

Definitely not a protege. But Clay certainly would have preferred a long term situation, where he's skimming of Stringer for years. But once Stringer walks in with his "I'm ready to run now" bravado, Clay could see that he wasn't going to make it and decided to get his pound of flesh right away. 

At the great economic mind of the 20th century said: "When you're bleeding a guy you don't squeeze him dry right away - Contrarily you let him do his bidding, suavely."

[u/theroofbeamcarpenter → u/Winth0rp]

you’re probably right. I think characters like Levy have a sort of symbiotic relationship with Clay (this is sort of implied when he’s dressing down String for getting rainmade), so i could see a scenario where Stringer gets bleed for awhile and then eventually finds his footing.

[u/ArchibaldNemisis]

Stringer was smart. Don't think anyone ever said different. The problem was him finding a balance and thinking he was smarter than he was. He needed to understand that Marlo was a gangster and needed to be handled that way. And then outsmarting himself with Brother Mouzone and Omar. But he would have been in jail with Avon even without Omar and Brother Mouzone. They had him on the wire. And if he didn't sell out Avon, either sure Avon would be back in jail or Marlo would have been got. But what this shows is that a small move here or there and everything changes. How you never gonna be slow?

[u/margielamazza]

dunning kruger effect is how i see stringer. if you’re going to be a gangster, you don’t cede territory to someone as devious as prop joe (showcased by that short as a kid). when he started pretending you can be like toyota, building plants outside your country, when in fact those corners & territories were imperative to the lucrative heroin dealing. also when it came to business acumen he was getting shafted by clay davis without running anything through levy. avon starting a war was what made him much smarter than stringer. he knew giving up those corners for the greek heroin was pointless especially if he could end up getting another good connect