You May Not Be That Good After All
You’re mostly talk.
It is rare for a child growing up in India to not like cricket at some point. Millennials, like myself, have dreamed of playing like Sachin Tendulkar — regarded by many as the greatest cricketer ever. The GOAT.
Sachin is to cricket what Michael Jordan is to basketball. The icon.
It’s been 8 years since his retirement, and kids still hope of smashing India to a World Cup victory as he did in 2011. To many in our country, sport is the religion, and Sachin is their god. You are bound to love the game in an environment like this.
I too loved cricket as a child. So much so that I used to wake up at 4 in the morning when India played in Australia. The love was real, and it was all that mattered to a 12-year-old.
We used to get very passionate while playing the sport. I was not a professional of any sort, but the blistering sun raised eyebrows and temperatures. Revenge was sought if we had lost the previous day.
We were avengers long before it became cool.
In retrospect, my peers were better than me at the game. I had a few moments, but I lacked consistency. I was filled with passion but had little to show for it. I was not very good, but you couldn’t have said it to me at the time, or I’d have come at you like a bull. In my head, I was the best player on the team.
Adolescence went by playing like this. The love for the sport faded away when school and career started catching up in life. I played less and less as I neared my high-school graduation and stopped altogether when I entered college.
We had a personality development class alongside our CS majors during the first year. The professor was a chilled out middle-aged man with gray hair. He used to come in late and leave 15 minutes early. His assignments included collaborative projects and then presenting them to the class along with debates and group discussions.
He was interested in psychology and used to tell us about many behavioral effects — the spotlight effect, cocktail party effect, naïve realism, etc. He told us about the Dunning-Kruger effect during one such class.
I took it with a grain of salt.
What is Dunning-Kruger Effect?
David Dunning, a now-retired professor of psychology from Cornell University, conducted a test with Justin Kruger in 1999. Kruger was doing his Ph.D. at the time from Cornell.
The two tested participants based on their logic, sense of humor, and grammar, and found that those who performed in the bottom quartile rated their skills far above average.
As Brian Duignan states, it is a cognitive bias in psychology where people with limited knowledge and understanding in a domain overestimate their competence relative to their peers. Technical much?
Isiah Thomas explained it in much simpler terms when he said,
“We’re not as good as we thought we were.
At this point, we’re all talk.”
He said this to describe the defense of Boston Celtics.
The crux of the issue being, you’re not as good as you think you are. You’re delusional.
We have all exhibited this effect in our lives. I know I have, and there are still days when I showcase it, even though I’ve known about it for four years.
I know that I’ve shown it while preparing my resume for Software Engineering roles. Every job requires some specific tech stack, and it is practically impossible to master all of them. Yet, I never mentioned myself to be a beginner at any skill. I always believed I’ll be able to handle it during the interviews. It did not work out well many a time.
I exhibited similar traits during my years playing cricket. I’ve experienced it when I was starting to cook or when I thought I can fix electricity because I had mastered Kirchhoff’s laws in school.
Little knowledge is dangerous, and even though we’ve been told this for ages, how many of us really keep it over our egos?
I’ve struggled with this for years, and time and time again, I’ve made a fool of myself. And believe me, this is not the “fool” people encourage you to become. There are techniques that people in psychology suggest which can help us keep in check.
You need to become self-aware
This will help you in life, irrespective of the effect you’re trying to avoid. The best way to apply this is to take a step back the next time you’re about to pass a judgment on something.
Ask yourself if you actually know what you’re about to say. If the answer is a resounding Yes, sit down and keep your mouth shut. If it is a humble yes, then you can express it with humility.
Talk to people whom you consider an expert
You must connect with people whom you consider knowledgeable in a subject. This helps in improving your perspective and knowledge about the topic, making you better equipped.
This point is an extension of the previous one. If you can apply it correctly, it will also help you uncover your blind spots.
Improve your knowledge or expertise
If you think you know everything about investing and markets and believe that you can become the next Buffet or Ray Dalio, apply the first rule and couple it with growth.
Talk to people, read more about it and put yourself to the test. Accept the result with humility if you can make a profit and if not, rejoice that you didn’t make a bad investment and keep on improving.
Accept different viewpoints and opinions
Like self-awareness, this is not specific to this effect itself. No one likes a cocky individual who doesn’t know what he is talking about. You won’t make any good friends with such an attitude.
It is vital that you listen and not just hear different viewpoints. Just like our second advice, this can help you uncover blind spots. It will also make you more likable.
Final Thoughts
Every person rates themselves better than they actually are. It is insignificant when you’re a child because your life and relationships are open to a lot of changes. It is only when you become an adult that it can affect your life and career. You know people who are this way, and you know that nobody likes their company. So why become them?
It is not about accepting the way you are, but about becoming a better version of yourself.
