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Posted on 2021-05-10
This post is more or less a comment to the great column that nytpu[1] did on the first issue of a new "gemzine" (= Gemini Magazine) called smolZINE[2]. I suggest you take a look at the first smolZINE issue[3] if you haven't already.
2: gemini://gemini.cyberbot.space/smolzine/
3: gemini://gemini.cyberbot.space/smolzine/smolzine-issue-1.gmi
I said it was a comment and not a response, because I'll go a bit off topic from the original article to talk more globally of why we can't seem to evaluate ourselves properly and not really debate with the conclusion, that was:
Don't think that because something is simple or easy compared to what others have done—or even other stuff that you yourself have done—that it isn't worth anything. Don't sell yourself short.
And I fully agree with it. We all struggle with this (not in the same way of course) because evaluation requests knowledge, and thus evaluating our own knowledge with our own appreciation of difficulty and own knowledge… That doesn't really make sens or seems objectively doable… Being judge and judged at the same time would require a hell of step back from our own self!
But let's not go too far from the initial subject: why is it so hard?
I believe a lot of this could be explained by the Dunning–Kruger effect. From wikipedia[4]:
4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.
I'm sure most of you by reading the definition are already thinking of someone that fits that description. It is easy because the internet is filled of people thinking they know everything. How much experts did we all saw online during this covid pandemic? I never talked to so many "epidemiologists" than in 2020…
But I'm also sure that to some degree we all felt into that trap at least once. Even me, right now, writing this post like I'm an expert in this Dunning-Kruger effect… Which I'm clearly not (not even close :)).
Ok, so paraphrasing a bit (a lot): some people think they're expert in some things even though they are not, that sounds logic given the fact that most of them have in reality a limited knowledge of the subject, so they are judging with all they have.
And in Dunning's better words:
If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent ... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.
So how does this relate to nytpu's post and the difficulty of evaluating ourselves?
Well, this study also suggest an interesting corollary:
Moreover, competent students tended to underestimate their own competence, because they erroneously presumed that tasks easy for them to perform were also easy for other people to perform.
And this is where I think it relates to nytpu's column. We are judging things based on the difficulty /for us/ to do that thing! And thus, sometimes, just underestimate the value of what we can do. Even more if it relates to our daily job where whatever we might do become just "a thing we do during the day". Have you ever discussed with a senior fireman or surgeon? While anyone would say that what they do is just incredible (and it is!!), they often just say that it is "just their job" and underplay their skills ("oh yeah I saved 2 life last weekend…" !!). Because it almost became a second nature to them to perform this activities daily.
Funny enough, we see the same "dual judgement" everywhere. For example for people in IT like me, We often see how good some people are, they might be a creator of a tool you love, a very well known guy in a community or just a coworker that you find better that you. And we then thought "oh I'm far from their skills and I'm just a small n00b" (or hopefully a version more optimisitc :)). And then someone not comfortable with a computer sees us opening a shell and writing some basic commands and all a sudden we became magicians for them, ready to hack a bank or something…
Every skills other have that we don't and that we find difficult to obtain, we believe it is incredible… And don't get me wrong, it absolutely is! We just have to remind ourselves that like them, everyone has skills that other could not get "easily" (or don't want to) and thus may have a lot of value for that someone. A simple thing like saving documents from a damaged hard drive can "save someone's day"!
Value what you've learn while keeping in mind that there is still a lot more to learn! It is the best way to keep your feet on earth while trying to stay a tiny bit objective. But also keeping in mind that what we learned is also valuable!
The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.
This might be an interesting difference to think about as a potential lead on where one would need to focus ;).
My conclusion will sound pretentious but it is not the intend, so sorry if that's the case :).
I will finish this longer than expected post with a quote I love from a French physicist doctor, describing himself as "philosopher of the science", Etienne klein. I can't think of anything more true:
To ignore that we ignore is to know nothing; but to know what we do not know is really to know, because it supposes knowing everything that is already established and being able to detect what is still a hole in knowledge.
As it might not be translated properly, for any French speaking person, the real quote is:
Ignorer qu’on ignore, c’est ne rien savoir ; mais savoir qu’on ignore, c’est vraiment savoir, car cela suppose de savoir tout ce qui est déjà établi et d’être capable de détecter ce qui fait encore trou dans la connaissance.
Indeed, usually the more we know about something, the more we realize that there are so many things still to learn that we may feel "small" or "bad"… But that just means that there is a lot of cool things to learn, not that you've learn nothing so far! And this is awesome <3.
PS: Funny enough, when I write this type of post I really feel my English deficiency… Even though I spent most of my work days speaking and writing (work) English, when it comes to writing with more finesse and nuances, it is a lot harder. A good way to remind myself how far from being really fluent I am :D.