Friday, 12 December 2014

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know. (Attributed to Socrates, from Plato) 

The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University, occurs where people fail to adequately assess their level of competence — or specifically, their incompetence — at a task and thus consider themselves much more competent than everyone else. This lack of awareness is attributed to their lower level of competence robbing them of the ability to critically analyse their performance, leading to a significant overestimate of themselves. Put more crudely, they're too stupid to realize they're stupid. 

The inverse also applies: competent people tend to underestimate their ability compared to others; this is known as impostor syndrome

If you have no doubts whatsoever about your brilliance, you could just be that damn good. On the other hand... 

(Author Unknown)

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