The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Why Incompetent People Think They’re Brilliant

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological phenomenon that was first described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999.

It refers to the psychological process for people with little knowledge and skills to overestimate their confidence, competence or expertise in that area. But conversely, the people with high knowledge and skills underestimate their competence and confidence in the area and think that others possess same amount of knowledge as them.

Imagine this:

If three people i.e. college student, idiot man and expert are kept in same room for discussion. If they all are asked the same question, then the idiot man will show the confidence and state the answer even if it is likely to be wrong. The college student lacks the confidence to say the answer, even if it is right. However, the expert with both knowledge and confidence finally says the answer after hearing others’ opinions.

This effect in seen in every learning person. If a coder learns few tings about any programming language, they think that they know it all. They don’t focus on basic concepts but on facts or specific syntax. Later, on learning more, they find out that they know nothing. Socrates quoted that:

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

So while learning anything, we will hit that rock bottom or downhill slope but leaving the thing at that point is the biggest mistake of the learner. It is the decision of future. If you still learn even after that failures, then you will climb the hill. If you don’t, you will stay in the rock-bottom. That’s why most people never finish what they start.

Learning might be simple, but not easy as we think it is. Learning is one lifelong skill you must have to conquer your life. Not to be contradictory, but sometimes, and I quote it, “sometimes” it is better to quit early if and only if you know deep down that this is not for you. It’s the truth you have to face. As humans, we only have limited time and we can only learn limited skills. So rather than wasting it on a useless one, do what you need to do.

What skill are you trying to learn now? Did you face this effect? How was it?