The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a term used to explain why ignorant people tend to boast about their confidence despite being wrong, and wiser people often have doubts about their knowledge. We’ve seen both in life from others. We’ve also practiced both sides ourselves. Watching a cartoon as a kid, throwing on a towel to act as a cape, and promptly jumping off something you wouldn’t dare jump off without the “cape.” As a young adult, studying for weeks for a test, attending every class, taking notes, and asking questions for clarity and still having the nerve to be visibly shaking the day of the exam.
These are normal occurrences but these also occur as adults which is not so okay. Blissful ignorance as an adult is just a ticking time bomb for the inevitable rude awakening. A singer, dancer, cook, designer, artist of any kind, going through a large portion of life believing they possess a skill that they don’t is dream crushing. It is a large possibility that they will never do what they thought they were good at again. Yes, self-awareness could have prevented this but receiving or seeking honest feedback outside their circle of “yes-men” could have also.
At the time of writing this post, we (the USA) recently saw Trump supporters storm the capital building in an attempt to show their loyalty to the former president and stop the ceremonious count and confirmation of the electoral college votes which will declare a new President. Ignorance at it’s finest was on display. These local terrorists thought crime and destruction showed solidarity to the former president. They also thought that stoping a ceremonious count would somehow stop the process of the new president taking his rightful place at the upcoming inauguration. Why did they believe either of these? Who told them this would work? Well, no one did. They collaborated with other uninformed people and pulled “facts” out of the sky. This is the danger of ignorance being accompanied by more ignorance. There is no voice of reason.
A voice of reason would allow actions that don’t make sense to be challenged by thought. Thought will question the validity of your stance and the possible consequences of the actions you want to take. This example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect costs 4 people their lives, countless arrest and lost jobs, and tons of bruised egos because the “rude awakening” occurred nationwide. The terrorists were shown that they had no power to stop what they intended to stop. Many people who believed these types of people didn’t exist locally were awakened. The social media outlets who let the former president spew hateful and fire-starting messages to the world at his leisure saw what they enabled it and shut down his accounts. Blissful ignorance is a problem.
There are people out there with the knowledge to change the course of the entire world but cripple themselves with doubt. Why are these people questioning themselves? A better question is why haven’t they sought after some feedback about their ideas/plans? Yes, their self-awareness is lacking but not having any external input is something that it can’t be paired with. It doesn’t take much time to see that this pairing leaves no one to breathe life into that dream/plan. That means it’s left for dead. There is a scientist out there that has a plan of a cure for cancer. Another scientist is formulating a plan allowing humans to navigate through the high radiation Van Allen belts currently preventing humans from traveling deep into space. (Yes, I know what you are thinking. We can argue another time.)
These people suffer from doubt and lack of a circle providing feedback but they also have a history of great things being suppressed availible to study. Let’s remember, these people are intelligent. They’ve studied the past and discovered not all people with great ideas are met with admiration and support. This increases the doubt. These people need to go against the supported logic their doubt provides and adopt an unwavering belief in themselves and their idea. Once this is achieved and any trademark, patent, or other legal paperwork is completed, the idea/plan can be shared with a few trusted individuals. They don’t necessarily need to be friends/family just someone whose feedback will be valuable. Positive feedback will increase your belief and negative feedback can be used to improve your plan if constructive. With self-awareness, you can easily disregard negative feedback that doesn’t include anything that will improve the outlook of your plan.
In closing, you want to be on the right side of this phenomenon which is to not be associated in any capacity. Self-awareness is the solution to this. You must be honest with yourself. If you are a creator, ask yourself how does what you create and believe is good, measure up to creations you enjoy by others? If not very well is the answer, you have work to do.
Telling yourself you need to be better is a lot easier to take than masses of people who know good work telling you your work is not good. Especially if you believed you were great up until that moment. No one deserves that type of heartbreak. On the contrary, if you are having doubts about your ability and cannot find any justifiable reasoning outside of the history of similar ideas or talent being met with resistance take that as a sign to push forward 100%. The world is waiting for your excellence.
Food for thought…You do the dishes.
