Are You Really Above Average?

Are you? Really?

In 2018, American Automobile Association (AAA) released a study that shows 73% of U.S. drivers consider themselves as “above average” drivers. 8 of 10 men, in particular, think their driving skills are better than the average Joe.

It’s not possible if you do the math…

In a survey done by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 68% of lecturers ranked themselves in the top 25% for teaching ability, and 94% rated themselves above average. In another similar study at Stanford University, 87% of MBA students rated their academic performance as above average.

All the above studies have the same thing in common, that is we humans tend to think of ourselves as “above average” or simply: better than most people.

The Dunning–Kruger Effect

The Dunning–Kruger Effect (DKE) was a cognitive bias identified in the year 1999, after social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger performed a series of studies. Across 4 studies conducted, the psychologist found that participants who score in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability.

Putting it in layman terms: People with lower abilities at a certain skill tend to overestimate themselves.

Why does this happen?

Dunning and Kruger explain that people who are incompetent in a particular set of skills suffer from a double curse:

  1. Curse#1 – Due to their lower abilities on that set of skills, they have higher chances of making mistakes.
  2. Curse#2 – The same knowledge gap from curse#1 also prevents them from realizing their errors.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

William Shakespeare

Who’s most vulnerable to this bias?

Unfortunately… ALL of us.

Impact of Dunning–Kruger Effect

  • At Work:
    • People who are poor performers at their work tend to volunteer for extra work because they are unable to gauge their own abilities to complete the task, resulting in more poor performance.
    • During performance reviews, employees who performed poorly are more likely to react poorly to constructive criticism. This is because, in their own mind, they think they are performing above average.
  • In Politics:
    • Radical supporters of political parties will often express confidence in expertise on policies from the parties they support but will have the slightest idea when asked about it in detail.
    • Voters with lesser knowledge are easily influenced by representatives who push their policiesd and ideals, and the same voters will usually be the extreme supporters of these representatives.
  • In Life:
    • When writing down a to-do list or planning for the day, we sometimes overestimate ourselves by putting too much on our plate. We often think that we are ideal in terms of productivity.

Overcoming the Dunning–Kruger effect

Continuous learning. Remember, although we may be specialized in our own field of work, we are always a layman in other fields that we are not familiar with. Having this in mind, and gaining more knowledge on the other fields of interest will help you from falling prey to this effect.

Have an open mind. Taking criticism with an open mind instead of resisting goes a long way. If you don’t agree with it, seek to understand more rather than raising your shields.

Avoid snap decisions. Quick decisions tend to make people feel more confident in some way, but that decision might not be the best one. To avoid falling into this trap, take some time to think it through before jumping into it.

Challenging your own longstanding beliefs or claims. When you think you’re good at something, think again. Are you really good at it? Get someone to verify those beliefs/claims. Be humble and find ways to challenge yourself.

The Polar Opposite: Imposter Syndrome

Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani from Pexels

While those who suffer from DKE experienced a sense of overconfidence in themselves, at the end of the other spectrum lies those who underestimate themselves… even when they are good at something. They are afraid that they will be called out as a fraud as soon as they present themselves as somewhat – specialized in that field.

They feel like an… Imposter – anxiously hiding behind their “mask”, wondering when their “true” identity will be revealed.

Imposter Syndrome (IS) was termed by psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Dr. Suzanne A. Imes in 1978. In Clance and Imes’s article, IS was defined as an individual who had an experience of self-perceived intellectual phoniness. A person with IS will think that they are not as competent as others perceive them to be.

When I wanted to start my blog, I was hit by this phenomenon – right in the face… Who on earth would want to read what I’m about to write? Will others think of me as a fool, who writes on topics which I have no expertise in? People will laugh at me and think that I’m stupid right?

That was the inertia that kept me in place, for a while.

Then one day, I came across a video from YouTuber Ali Abdal. In his video, he talks about how he started his blog, facing the same challenges I faced. He also introduced a book titled “Show Your Work!” by Austin Kleon, which shows us that we don’t have to be experts before we can start sharing our work. Both the video and the book had made me change the way I think, moving me forward from then on (Please do check out both Ali and Austin’s work, you would not regret it).

Obvious to You, Amazing to Others

At times (usually during a hot shower), I will have a sudden burst of inspiration that kept flowing in, and I quickly jot down all those ideas before I forget about them. These ideas usually stem from a compilation of videos that I’ve watched or books that I’ve read.

After a while, whilst I’m trying to put those points together to form a post, a thought came into mind: “Wait a minute… didn’t I see this before from somewhere else over the internet? This isn’t that original at all! Guess everyone should’ve known this by now right? Should I put this in?”

The thought of being un-original struck me hard. I kept repeating to myself that this information should be common knowledge by now, everyone should’ve at least seen this somewhere somehow right? Am I stating the obvious?

It is then I came upon a post from renowned American author Derek Sivers (I even borrowed the title of his post for me heading here, thanks Derek!). In his post, Derek emphasized that: “Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them.“. Even famous people at some point will think their great ideas are common knowledge. As Derek pointed out in his post, hit songwriters often admit that their most successful hit song was one they thought was just stupid, even not worth recording.

What’s obvious to you, might just be amazing to others.

We’re clearly bad judges of our own creations. We should just put them out there and let the world decide.

Derek Sivers

This is post #5.

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