We all have what are known as “cognitive biases.” These mental blind spots affect how we perceive the world, ourselves, and the decisions we make. The worst part about a cognitive bias is that it’s often difficult to be aware of your own simply because you’re inside it. How can you perceive a bias when you’re steeped in that bias? It’s sort of like the way your house has a distinct smell that everyone else notices immediately, but you’ve become nose-blind toward.
One of the most insidious cognitive biases is the famous Dunning-Kruger Effect, which describes the way people who are not good at (or knowledgeable about) something lack the perspective to judge their capabilities in it—that lack of experience and knowledge causes us to overestimate our abilities. In other words, people tend to think they’re good at things they are not actually good at. It makes us a lot more susceptible to what scientists call “bullshit,” and can get us into trouble when we dive into tasks or activities we have zero business diving into.
You Could Be Falling for the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Not Even Know It
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