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Dunning-Kruger Effect vs. Impostor syndrome (You want to avoid BOTH!)
A comment on a post by Mike Beckham
I'm in my 9th year as the CEO of a business I co-founded.
We have been fortunate to have a lot of success along the way. This year I have learned something counter-intuitive The better you get in an area, the more you see the gaps. The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular area overestimate their abilities. It tells…
Read the original on LinkedInSharp observation by Mike Beckham and also cool illustration that depicts this common phenomenon graphically👍
As a more visual representation, picture this:
If you expand the surface of the circle of your knowledge the circumference (interpreted as the frontier to the area that you DON'T yet know) enlarges too.
For "knowledge/ignorance" that's for sure true. I'm not so sure though to which extent that's also true for "ability", which of course is different to "knowledge".
Potential knowledge gain is infinite. Conversely, while theoretically you could also improve "ability" infinitely, at some point you reach your potential or at least the incremental improvements are slowing down, it's sort of universal or "natural".
And that's probably the reason it doesn't come with the analogue feeling of "the more I'm able the more I realize how unable I am". You DO feel more confident about your ability over time and it’s good you do because you are.
Let's not forget, the opposite of Dunning-Kruger is called "Impostor syndrome"😉