On April 19th 1995 McArthur Wheeler robbed a
bank with his face glazed with lemon juice, believing the juice would make his face
invisible to the surveillance cameras. He thought so because lemon juice works
as invisible ink on a piece of paper. Police broadcasted the security camera
footage on the local 11 o'clock news, and just after midnight Arthur was arrested.
Incredulously he said "But I wore the juice!" Baffled by this reasoning,
David Dunning and Justin Kruger, two Psychologists, studied Mr Wheeler and
others like him . They came to the conclusion that people with low ability at a task tend
to, paradoxically, overestimate themselves. This cognitive bias is known
as The Dunning–Kruger effect. Let’s look at this graphically plotting one’s
confidence in your ability against one’s actual knowledge in a field. As we learn something new,
we are often highly confident because we know so little that as soon as we do know a tiny bit, we
think we know it all. Those who stop learning here maintain a false sense of mastery. Those
who continue learning, realize things are more complex and often lose motivation. And
the more they increase their knowledge the lower their confidence becomes. Many stop at
this stage, thinking they’ve learned nothing. Only if we keep going can we regain confidence
while getting better. And at the end, we will be full of knowledge and almost as confident
in our ability as right after we started. In other words, if a simpleton , a good student
and a wise teacher were to have a public debate, this is how things could go down. The simpleton
knows just a little bit, but is very confident and voices his opinions loud and without hesitations.
The student knows more, but doesn’t realize it because she lacks confidence. She keeps quiet. The
teacher is confident, but understands how complex things really are, hence voices his opinions with
reservations. In the end, the simpleton wins the popular vote, because he is so confident about
being right and people tend to trust certainty. Research from North America, Europe and
Japan suggests that culture plays a big role. From assessments of one's own
ability to drive we know that 93% of Americans think they are better
drivers than average, while “only '' 69% of Swedish think so. In Japan on the other
hand, people, in general, tend to underestimate their abilities as a strategy to see their
underachievement as an opportunity to improve. Setting out on a journey of learning
can be a daunting experience. What starts off as a leisurely stroll
soon changes to an intense battle of willpower between you and an intimidating
amount of knowledge. Do not give up. The longer you fight, the more power
you gain, up until the point you win. And in the end, if you persevere, you
may be elevated to the ranks of Socrates, who, over 2000 years ago,
left us with a quote of wisdom “I know that I am intelligent,
because I know that I know nothing.” sprouts videos are published under the
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