Why Incompetents Think They're Awesome
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." William Shakespeare
"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid people are full of confidence." Charles Bukowski
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Yeats
Here's an interesting article on one of humanity's oldest conundrums: Why do people who aren't very good at something think they are?
Part of it is narcissism, apparently. But part of it seems to be the self-perpetuating problem that if you aren't an expert in a field, you have difficulty in self-examining your expertise in that field. Someone who is expert in a field is better able to self-evaluate their level of expertise in that field.
There's an unfortunate side-effect that makes the situation worse: if you lack the expertise necessary to evaluate your own level of expertise, you also tend to lack the ability to evaluate the abilities of other people. And if you feel you're above average, well, that means that you're going to think that most people aren't as skilled as you are, whether they genuinely are or not.
This short-coming is going to affect your judgment in several different ways. One of the important ones is that you may have difficulty picking an expert to help you, as you simply cannot accurately assess just how skilled they are. So you're going to have to polish up your research skills and find out who is well-regarded in their own field, and find out who THEY consider to be experts. There will be a lot of argument, of course, but you'll be able to find a consensus around a few names.
As your own expertise increases, you'll be better able to judge who is actually competent and who is not. Just a guess here, but anyone who proclaims themselves to be an expert probably is not. Not all experts are likely to be modest about their abilities, but I think you'll find that most are.
And in case you don't know how narcissistic you are, here are some online tests you can take. I make no guarantees of their accuracy, of course: not my field of expertise.
Test one.
An article on test one. Don't read it until AFTER taking the test. You don't want to accidentally cheat.
A general personality disorder test. A diagnostic for several problems, including narcissism.
Other links appeared to be duplicates of test one on other sites.
If these tests seem to indicate that you might have severe problems, DON'T take their word for it. Only a psychiatrist or psychologist is truly qualified to make a diagnoses, no matter how well-written a test might be.
"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid people are full of confidence." Charles Bukowski
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Yeats
Here's an interesting article on one of humanity's oldest conundrums: Why do people who aren't very good at something think they are?
Part of it is narcissism, apparently. But part of it seems to be the self-perpetuating problem that if you aren't an expert in a field, you have difficulty in self-examining your expertise in that field. Someone who is expert in a field is better able to self-evaluate their level of expertise in that field.
There's an unfortunate side-effect that makes the situation worse: if you lack the expertise necessary to evaluate your own level of expertise, you also tend to lack the ability to evaluate the abilities of other people. And if you feel you're above average, well, that means that you're going to think that most people aren't as skilled as you are, whether they genuinely are or not.
This short-coming is going to affect your judgment in several different ways. One of the important ones is that you may have difficulty picking an expert to help you, as you simply cannot accurately assess just how skilled they are. So you're going to have to polish up your research skills and find out who is well-regarded in their own field, and find out who THEY consider to be experts. There will be a lot of argument, of course, but you'll be able to find a consensus around a few names.
As your own expertise increases, you'll be better able to judge who is actually competent and who is not. Just a guess here, but anyone who proclaims themselves to be an expert probably is not. Not all experts are likely to be modest about their abilities, but I think you'll find that most are.
And in case you don't know how narcissistic you are, here are some online tests you can take. I make no guarantees of their accuracy, of course: not my field of expertise.
Test one.
An article on test one. Don't read it until AFTER taking the test. You don't want to accidentally cheat.
A general personality disorder test. A diagnostic for several problems, including narcissism.
Other links appeared to be duplicates of test one on other sites.
If these tests seem to indicate that you might have severe problems, DON'T take their word for it. Only a psychiatrist or psychologist is truly qualified to make a diagnoses, no matter how well-written a test might be.