I Guess This Explains American Idol Auditions Once and for All

Reading this article will make you really paranoid (title: "Incompetent People Really Have No Clue, Studies Find; They're Blind to Own Failings, Others' Skills").  The main idea is that, according to some research, "people who do things badly are usually supremely confident of their abilities--more confident, in fact, than people who do things well."  Here's the part that has basically left me haunted:

One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.

The incompetent, therefore, suffer doubly, they suggested in a paper appearing in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

``Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it,'' wrote Kruger, now an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and Dunning.

Umm, cool.  So, is there any way for me to determine whether or not I am living my life inside a sealed box of lies borne of my own blissful ignorance?  No?  Awesome. 

Anyway, that's why I made you read the article--so we can all wonder if we are incompetent together.

Comments

[Girl con Queso]

Oh dear. If ability were a prerequsite for doing, I'd never get anything done.