The Less You Know About Something, the More Sure You Probably Feel

There’s a name for what’s been running underneath every page in this set: the Dunning-Kruger effect. People with the least skill or knowledge in an area tend to rate their own ability the highest, because the same gap in knowledge that makes them bad at something also makes them unable to see how bad they are at it. It’s not stupidity. It’s a blind spot everyone has in some area of their life, including you and including the person writing this.

Go back through the list. The driver who thinks everyone else is the problem. The one who ignored the red flag because they were sure they’d read the person correctly. The one who breaks the small rules because the rules are for other people. The one certain their culture, their god, their side of the aisle has it figured out. In every case, the confidence showed up before the competence did, if the competence ever showed up at all. That’s the pattern this whole set of pages has been pointing at from different angles.

The fix isn’t complicated, even if it’s uncomfortable. It’s asking, before you’re sure about something, how much you actually know about it versus how strongly you feel about it. Those are two different numbers, and for most people in most arguments, the second one is bigger. Noticing the gap doesn’t make you weak. It’s the one move that actually separates someone worth listening to from someone who just talks the loudest.

This is one of several areas like this one. Head back to see the rest.