Somewhat off-topic, but:
In the case of singing, you might get all the way to an audition on X-Factor on national television before someone finally provides you with an accurate appraisal. Dunning says that the shock that some people feel when Simon Cowell cruelly explains to them that they suck is often the result of living for years in an environment filled with mediocrity enablers. Friends and family, peers and coworkers, they donât want to be mean or impolite. They encourage you to keep going until you end up in front of millions reeling from your first experience with honest feedback.
A shrivel-souled marketeer who gets off on belittling people is not âhonest feedback.â Please do not confuse the two.
A quick read would lead one to the conclusion that depression comes from seeing the world as it really is. That would square with my experience. Why are all these people so happy? Is it some kind of trick?
It is.
âNescienceâ has the same origin as the word âniceâ - I thought everyone knew that?! (pun intended)
Iâve always liked how this little poem nails it completely:
âSee the happy moron,
He doesnât give a damn,
I wish I were a moron,
My God! perhaps I am!â
The film maker Errol Morris wrote a series of brilliant pieces in the NY TImes a couple of years ago on this, what he termed âanosognosia,â or the condition of not understanding that you have a condition. Well worth reading if youâre at all interested in how self-delusion rules our lives.
Are you sure about being unsure about oneâs ignorance? Iâm almost always acutely aware of my ignorance and shortcomings. Of course, it is quite an effort for me to get out of bed early in the mornings these daysâŚ
The âDunning-Kruger effectâ seems to be referenced a lot lately in the blogosphere. I am sure that it is real, but I am MORE concerned about the opposite problem: people becoming paralyzed from taking action/risks because of the fear of being judged âincompetentâ.
To develop any skill, you have to start as a beginner, make mistakes and take some level risk by jumping into the unknown-- yes, as an âincompetentâ. Many folks donât even attempt new and challenging things simply because theyâre afraid of failure (of incompetence). I think that bringing up the Dunning-Kruger effect makes even more people think twice about embarking on something new.
To put it another way, which is worse: starting something and being incompetent at it, or, not starting anything at all?
Basically, negative bias is more applicable to reality than positive bias.
Speaking of negativity, every episode of this series seems to be some variaton of âyou probably think you´re good at something, have some kind of talent, are somewhat intelligent, nice, lovable or anything else that could be interpreted as a positive characteristic, but you´re not, because everyone sucks at everything and everything sucks. You are also stupid. It´s science.â
At the same time, I can´t really argue with that view. Except for myself of course.
But if we are now aware that we are unaware that we lack the skill to tell how unskilled and unaware we are, donât we now have the skill to to tell how unskilled and unaware we are, so we are now more skilled and aware as to how unskilled and unaware we are?
Q.E.D.
Dunningâs insight is that we are neither wholly competent nor incompetent, but instead have blind spots that we canât see or know about. Sometimes itâs because these areas of incompetency have been inadvertently rewarded (e.g., you guessed right, and now believe you can predict the future). Sometimes itâs because these areas have never been tested, or never raised outside of a circle of people with similar views or opinions or a general unwillingness to tell you the truth.
So you can become aware that blind spots exist, but you cannot tell whether a particular area where you believe yourself to be competent is in fact a blind spot to you. Thatâs DKE. To find your blind spots you need honest feedback from outside your skull: by definition, itâs not something you can reason your way out of on your own.
I think the most common self delusion is the belief among generic codependent people (raised in the stereotypical home full of abuse, addiction, abandonment) that they have a extra degree of understanding of other people. Of course, these are the same people that swear they will never marry a drunk, then marry someone that is practically a clone of their drunk parent. They are uniquely gullible in being drawn in by addicts and abusers and flounder completely when dealing with people who decent upbringings, but they remain convinced they have special telepathic powers.
Thereâs a cartoon somewhere where god argues himself out of existence, maybe somebody else can dig it up.
Anyway, If seeing things as they really are is maladaptive, Then yes, its a trick. Like the coyote and the Road Runner walking off of a cliff, the coyote only falls because he looks down.
Not a big deal actually, you usually need reasons to do something and no reasons to do nothing at all. reasoning yourself out of trying something is just the flip side of having no reasons to do it in the first place.
Failing to try because of fear? I cant help you there. Failing to try because you wonât be good? Thatâs the Dunning Kruger effect right there isnât it?
Whatâs interesting is that thereâs also the exact opposite effect, in which people who are highly skilled consistently underrate their own abilities, as they become good enough to see where they could improve, and that becomes all they can see.
Itâs almost a rule amongst artists (at least those not suffering the above effect)
Works for scientists and engineers too.
Let your work do most of the talking. Itâs more objective than anything you can say about yourself.
I dunno about a cartoon, but you might be thinking of a passage from The Hitchhikerâs Guide to the Galaxy.
A nice example: almost everybody can sing - but very few people think they can sing, at least in America. Old ladies in church regularly praise my singing voice, but Iâm just loud and on-key. Itâs really not complicated at all. The problem is that people imagine theyâre onstage at Carnegie Hall, and everybody else is from the New York Times.
Loud is the easy part. The âon keyâ part is what deserves praise.
Listening to this podcast was painful to me. I am already riddled with self doubt about skills that Iâm pretty sure I really am good at, and this just made me question myself all over again. I donât know how we can ever truly get feedback on what we do.
