Context: I’m a second year medical student and currently residing in the deepest pit in the valley of the Dunning-Kruger graph, but am still constantly frustrated and infuriated with the push for introducing AI for quasi-self-diagnosis and loosening restrictions on inadequately educated providers like NP’s from the for-profit “schools”.
So, anyone else in a similar spot where you think you’re kinda dumb, but you know you’re still smarter than robots and people at the peak of the Dunning-Kruger graph in your field?
I’m a software engineer, and this is my life. I know I don’t know a whole hell of a lot of shit, but I can sure as fuck tell that a LOT of people I come into professional contact with are largely faking it - and more importantly, don’t admit when they reach the bounds of their actual knowledge.
Yep. My work is dependent on outside contractors who claim big knowledge to get the contract, but then deliver broken code and no documentation. Faking knowledge is more lucrative than having knowledge. And negativity is so structurally frowned upon (you can get fired for not being positive enough) that these grifters rarely get called out.
you can get fired for not being positive enough
This is a sign of a broken organization
And negativity is so structurally frowned upon (you can get fired for not being positive enough) that these grifters rarely get called out.
And this is what enables it to be grifting all the way down.
The only losers are people who are actually competent and don’t lie about their competencies to get ahead.
I think you answered your own question by bringing up Dunning Krueger. It’s perfectly coherent to at the same time recognize one’s own flaws and also recognize that other people may be too dumb to do the same. That being said, it probably isn’t healthy. A better way to look at it might be to recognize that the level of expertise you are expecting of yourself isn’t necessarily what others are expecting of you. At least not at all times.
I would agree with this. Interesting way of looking at it.
But just an fyi, dunning Krueger effect has been disproven as a theory because the correlation the studies purported to find were only the same variables correlated with themselves.
Dunning Krueger is a flawed theory and the effect is not real. But i hear you, it definitely feels true a lot of times.
In my field, over confident people are unsafe.
If someone uses confidence to show their competency, I have a tendency to back off and question their actual abilities until I see it in action. If someone I am working with is unaware of their own experience someone on my team could die.
Edit: obviously in the medical field if y’all don’t know what you’re doing a patient could have a bad outcome or even die as well.
I call this, self loathing. But, in all seriousness, if you are a critically minded person, it stands to reason that you’d see flaws in others but even more so in yourself, whom you know more intimately.
I have graduated to the stage of my career where I believe “I have to teach these kids how to do things correctly before my coworkers corrupt them, or they learn bad behaviors on their own.” I was thrown in the fire early in my career and am trying to be the mentor I wish I had. I know where my knowledge gaps are, but generally know who to rely on. I definitely generate the most value when I stick to my expertise, but I still try to learn more whenever possible.
I should remember this crap for my next self-evaluation (I hate that crap).
IMHO, the best folks always have some sense of impostor syndrome. It compels them to think critically through their work, and they tend to be the folks that ask others for their opinions.
Overly confident people often don’t do that shit, but they also often mesmerize people with their confidence and fail up. Despite their poor performance, they climb the ladder.
That’s not to say that people shouldn’t be confident about your abilities. They should. That said, I try to judge people on what they’ve done, not how charming they are.
For competent people, I’m not even sure Impostor Syndrome is a real thing as much as it is just intimate knowledge of your own limitations, and making judgment calls based on knowledge of your own limitations. Does it mean you’re not capable of those things? No, it just means you’re aware that you lack knowledge in that arena. It’s not as though you can’t gain new knowledge. The most educated seem to be really aware of the things they don’t know, and look to other experts for the things they don’t know.
I’d say knowledge of your own limitations and and unwillingness to sell yourself as being more competent than you are in general are positives overall, indeed.
Hearing a doctor say “I don’t know” is actually a great sign of competence and humility IMO
Honestly, I would have WAY rather had some doctors tell me “I don’t know, let me get another opinion from someone,” instead of misdiagnosing me because they felt they needed to confidently give me a bad answer.
That shit would’ve saved me a lot of pain, suffering, and surgical procedures.
