Hello and welcome. My name is Kyle and this is How You Level Up, a podcast that decodes language
to help you become your best self. Today we ask, what is the illusion of knowledge?
To understand what this is, we should start with the Dunning-Kruger effect.
This effect is a cognitive bias identified by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999.
Their research demonstrated that people with limited knowledge or competence in a particular domain often overestimate their own ability and knowledge.
In their paper, which influenced later developments, unskilled and unaware of it, how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.
Dunning and Kruger conducted a series of studies that revealed a significant gap between perceived and actual competence.
Participants in the lowest 25% of performance often rated their abilities as significantly higher than their objective scores indicated.
This isn't surprising to hear.
For if you take a survey of your friends and ask them, where do you think your driving skill level is in comparison to each other?
They are all likely going to say that their own skill level is above average.
Yet, not everyone's skill level can be above average.
That negates the definition of what average means and measures Our overestimation of skill and knowledge occurs because those of us with limited knowledge lack the metacognitive ability to recognize our deficiencies As Dunning and
Kruger put it, the same knowledge that underlies the ability to produce correct judgment is also
the knowledge that underlies the ability to recognize correct judgment. Metacognition is
your ability to observe and understand your own thought process. It's thinking about your thinking.
So in practice, this would be your recognition that you learn something faster when you take
handwritten notes during a meeting rather than typing it out, or that you solve problems more
effectively after stepping away for a brief walk, or that during a presentation or public speaking,
you catch yourself speaking too quickly and consciously adjust your pace. Metacognition is
your understanding of your strengths and limitations, then changing, adapting, and even
reaching out for assistance or guidance when you know you're lacking. The illusion of knowledge
has implications. It has impact. Overconfident students will neglect to study and fail to seek
help, believing they understand materials better than they do. Employees who overestimate their
abilities may take tasks beyond their competence, leading to mistakes and decreased productivity.
The illusion of knowledge can be particularly dangerous in healthcare,
where doctors and practitioners must accurately assess their skills and knowledge.
An overconfident healthcare provider may make diagnostic errors or inappropriate treatment decisions.
Can we fault the student who feels confident about remembering the materials in class yet cannot recall when given a test Can we criticize the employee for failing to execute their project leading to a loss of a client
Can we blame the healthcare provider who has mountains of knowledge about medicine,
though they cannot identify a behavioral or nutritional change that resolves a malady?
Can we blame people when they're taught to use a hammer and then perceive everything as a nail?
No, we cannot condemn these people for their inability to see something they do not know existed.
What we can do is we can give feedback.
What we can hope for is that they're willing to learn from their mistakes.
What we can share are the lessons, the data, the supporting evidence,
so that they might learn more and pray they are willing to be open to learn,
to step outside and beyond their illusion of knowledge.
for the enemy of knowledge is not ignorance it is the illusion of knowledge humility is necessary
to escape the illusion of knowledge humility that you are wrong about things frequently that you
will be embarrassed about your incorrectness your incompetence and that it will be okay
because your growth is on the other side of this there are more than 200 000 words in the english
language, and there are, on average, two or three distinct meanings for each word.
The word bank is a financial institution and also the river's edge.
Polysemi is the definition for a single word having multiple meanings.
You can run a race run a business and run out of milk Metaphorical extensions are boundless based on creativity and context This means there are somewhere between 500 to a million distinct meaning definitions
and that's just English.
You cannot know all of them.
You cannot know each of their definitions, their uses, how they are abstract or practically applied.
You can stay in an illusory state.
You can deceive and trick yourself into thinking you're right more often than not.
You can willfully neglect the opportunity to grow and learn.
Or you can be open to learning more.
You can be willing to receive feedback.
You can reframe hurt statements and leverage your emotions as signals for understanding more about yourself and those around you.
You can learn from anyone, from everyone who has a different perspective, a different context-dependent distinction than you.
if that's what you desire. It is a choice, I'll bet a difficult choice, to step into a space
where you can level up.
Thank you for listening to How You Level Up. If you're enjoying the show, subscribe and give a
five-star rating. There are new episodes each month asking questions about timeless communication
lessons. Language is a medium for sharing, and the knowledge unpacked here can be applied to anyone,
anywhere, facing any challenge. If there's a question or topic you'd like me to dive into next,
send a note to any of my connected social media accounts. This is all about how you level up.