Thursday, March 9, 2017

Unskilled and Unaware

I'm sure you've run across people who just seem to keep making really dumb mistakes. We even have phrases to describe them like "He's as dumb as a hoe" or "He'd tear up an anvil". Well now there is scientific evidence that this trait is a recognized characteristic. Back in my day, we had the "Peter Principle" which said that within any organization, people would be promoted to their level of incompetence. The situation where someone is unaware of their own incompetence is called the "Dunning - Kruger Effect". HERE is a link to some of their original research.

So, the next time you run across someone who seems to always make the wrong decision, you will be able to describe his condition.

3 comments:

greggbc said...

"He can tear up a crowbar in a sandbox"

Clay said...

Meanwhile, in Japan:

http://nypost.com/2017/03/10/cuddling-robots-and-holograms-are-replacing-sex-in-japan/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&sr_share=twitter

Quirel said...

"He can f*** up a bowling ball with a feather!"

I think there is another situation worth investigation by scientists. It's the surprise felt by an individual when he sees a term often enough to assume that it's entered the general lexicon, only to run into someone more experienced and more knowledgeable than him who has just heard of it.

This is at least the third time it's happened to me with the "Dunning-Kruger Effect" term.