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[firecat]

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

(via technomom)

I collected a quote from the SF Chronicle about this (or a similar) study a while back, and the notion helped me understand vast landscapes of human behavior:

One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured...is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence. -- San Francisco Chronicle, 1-18-00

The study has some problems (e.g., I still don't think you can meaningfully rate whether someone is competent at humor, because that's so subjective), but overall it's fascinating.

Comments

[louisedunn.livejournal.com]

Ever since I saw this story, I get paranoid as soon as I think I'm good at something.

I've definitely internalized the "pride goeth before a fall" idea, and this plays right into that.