Posted in
general on June 7, 2006
- Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.
- Incompetent individuals will suffer from deficient metacognitive skills, in that they will be less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it–be it their own or anyone else’s.
- Incompetent individuals will be less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance by means of social comparison information. In particular, because of their difficulty recognizing competence in others, incompetent individuals will be unable to use information about the choices and performances of others to form more accurate impressions of their own ability.
- The incompetent can gain insight about their shortcomings, but this comes (paradoxically) by making them more competent, thus providing them the metacognitive skills necessary to be able to realize that they have performed poorly.
Damn Interesting.
Basically: if you’re stupid, you’re not clever enough to realise you’re stupid. Hence you don’t know you’re stupid. Genius!
I’ve known for a long time that I am not as competent or as intelligent as many of my acquaintances. I stupid. I have a memory like a chicken and analytical-logic skills like… well, like congress!
However, I try to be nice. (operative word is try)
I’ve found that very intelligent people often get on a one way thought track that because they are more intelligent and competent than almost everyone else around them this somehow gives them a license to be ‘not nice’ and to say and do egregious things about and to those they believe to be less intelligent and less competent. For example Josef Mengele.
The truly intelligent i.e. Einstein, recognize that intelligence does not make one more equal –ergo they also try to be nice. Additionally they have something only acquired by deep thought (or being an idiot). Humility.
I think your statement that “individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria” is not true. Most idiots know they’re floundering… unless they have a doctorate. In which case they pull out their NN license!
But I can tell you’ll probably end up as one of my jerk professors anyway. Good luck world.