Being In The Dunning-Kruger Club Is Stopping You From Being a Genius
Here’s how to overcome the biggest hurdle to self-improvement.
The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.
Have you seen the movie The Fight Club? The first rule of the Fight Club was — you do not talk about the Fight Club. You don’t tell others about the club because new entries are not appreciated. On the other hand, the first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is that you don’t even know you’re a member of it.
What is the Dunning-Kruger club?
The Dunning-Kruger club is based on a cognitive bias where we’re unaware of our own incompetence or lack of knowledge. Simply put, it’s when you're unable to see your own ignorance. It was identified when a thief by the name of Mcarthur Wheeler robbed two banks with his face covered by Lemon juice. He believed that the lemon juice acted as invisible ink.
Yeah. That happened.
However, don’t laugh at him just yet. Even though that was a far too extreme example of this cognitive bias, we’re not ourselves immune to it. In fact, many of us are members of this club.
When I first read about it, I told myself, “Yeah. I’m definitely not a member of this club.” And in fact, I’ve written about this bias in one of my articles. However, a few days ago, I stumbled upon something that messed with my head and made me question my own competence.
When people talk or write about the Dunning-Kruger effect, it’s almost always in reference to other people. “The fact is this is a phenomenon that visits all of us sooner or later,” Dunning says.
I had written about it. And that too in reference to others. However, could I be a member of the club itself? I resisted it at first. But now, I think I could be. In fact, all of us are, at least at some point or the other. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that 65% of Americans think they’re above average.
Well…that’s not statistically possible.
Denying that we’re a member of a club, just means that we’re one of the core members. And I don’t want to be a member of this club anymore. Because being members of this club is stopping us from improving ourselves to become geniuses. (Not you Genius. You’re a genius, both by name and character.)
Hence, I tried to figure out how I can quit this club. This article is my attempt to share some ways to help myself and others, do that. Excited? Let’s dive in then.
Take Inspiration From “The Loss of Confidence Project”
In the last few years, many of the psychological experiments have been put to test again. It was found that out of 100 well-known psychological experiments only 39% were reproducible when conducted with more rigorous methods. To see their own studies and beliefs being discredited in public was a painful moment for many social scientists. This goes to show that even the smartest of us can be wrong more often than being right.
In a timely manner, Julia Rohrer started a project called “The Loss of Confidence Project”. A personality psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, this project is her attempt to get her peers to willingly admit when they were wrong.
In this project, researchers are inspired to send in a declaration of ‘no confidence’ in their own past findings and foster self-correction. She simply wants to create a culture where it is okay and even expected for researchers to accept their past mistakes and not be penalized for it.
How to use it in our lives:
How about we do something like the loss of confidence project with our own lives? Let’s do a review of our life and recognize how often we have been wrong. How often we held insanely stupid and toxic beliefs, and how we protected those beliefs fiercely at the time.
This enables us to accept that we have a blind spot and that since we have been wrong in the past, we could be wrong today, and in the future too. This makes us intellectually humble, a trait that people of the Dunning-Kruger club don’t share.
Take Inspiration From “The Scientific Method”
The Scientific Method is a curated method of acquiring knowledge. It usually starts with formulating a hypothesis — a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. Then, through careful observations and rigorous scepticism, scientists try to conclude whether their hypothesis was true or false.
To remove confirmation bias, scientists also actively work against their own hypothesis, attempting to rule out any other alternative explanations for a phenomenon before settling on a conclusion.
How to use it in our own lives:
We’re so stuck on what we believe in, that we never even try to explore the other side. However, the reason scientists do so (and why we should too), is that it makes sure that our knowledge and theories don’t have any loopholes within it.
It’s as simple as suspending your current beliefs and actively and objectively going against them. Here are two examples —
- If you’re a writer who believes that one must write a little every day, try experimenting with writing a lot twice a week.
- If you believe that a non-vegetarian diet is optimal and that vegans are nutritional martyrs, try being a vegan for a few months and see how that works out.
Understand The Nature of Truth
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the stupid dress argument. If you have not — I hope you’re recovering nicely from that coma. And while some swore up and down that it was black and blue, others were a 100% sure that it was white and gold.
Or, you may have stumbled upon the rabbit or duck illusion. You could look at it all day and be sure that it’s a rabbit, and suddenly, you start seeing a duck.
It’s weird how people look at the same object, yet see different things. These images are examples of optical illusions. The reason for these optical illusions is that we may look at an image objectively, however, we see it subjectively. After receiving the external stimulus, different brains edit them in different ways, and hence the final picture we see is also different.
However, while we’re aware of the illusory nature of such images, we fail to accept that all of life is an illusion itself. Truth is shaped by our individual perceptions. This tells us that truth is never absolute, but perceptual. A zen story comes to mind —
Three monks debate over a temple flag rippling in the wind. The first monk refers to the flag as a moving banner. While the second monk insists that they are not seeing the flag move but rather the wind blowing. The argue back and forth until finally, a third monk intervenes: “It is not the flag moving, not the wind blowing, but rather the movement of your minds.”
Reward Intellectual Humility
As a society, we sometimes reward arrogance and overconfidence that don’t have legs of competence to stand on. Think — Theranos.
Theranos was a company that promised a breakthrough in blood testing technology saying that they could screen for over a hundred diseases with very little blood. Elizabeth Holmes, the founder, with the magic of her bravado, raised $70 million, resulting in her company being valued at $10 billion.
Turns out, her claims were false, and excessively so. The tests embarrassingly underdelivered. But if all of it was based on lies, how on Earth did she raise so much money in the first place? Simple. Because weirdly, we somehow want to reward overconfident and arrogant people. Think about Trump, who said on the night of his nomination — “I alone can fix it,” politics being the ‘it’. And look how that turned out.
In the last few points, I discussed how we can be more intellectually humble. However, the society and culture we live in, it can be tough. Especially because moments of humility can easily turn into moments of humiliation.
That is why we also have a bigger responsibility. Not only do we need to be intellectually humble ourselves, but we also need to make it okay for others around us to be intellectually humble. We need to convey that saying the words “I’m wrong” is a reason to celebrate, not a defeat to withstand.
Parents should give their kids candy when kids admit they’re wrong. People need to start respecting their friends who are not afraid to say the words “I’m wrong.” As a society, we need to spread the belief that the more you admit you’re wrong now, the more you’ll be right in the future. That is how we’ll move forward.
Final Thoughts
Admitting that you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club can be saddening. However, when you look at the big picture, it’s not. Because only when you know you’re a member of a good-for-nothing club, you can quit it. And it can be tough, especially because our ignorance can lie on our big, fat blind spots.
But it is possible. Here’s a recap of the principles you can use to quit the club and be more intellectually humble.
- Take inspiration from the “Loss of Confidence Project” and actively and willingly admit your errors of judgement from the past. This enables you to be more aware of your blind spot.
- Apply the scientific method and regularly try to prove your own beliefs wrong.
- Understand that truth is perceptual, not absolute. This will help bring down the arrogance that accompanies adopting various beliefs.
- Try to create an environment that does not penalise the admission of “I’m wrong.” Instead, let’s build a world that celebrates those words. This, in turn, makes it easier for all of us to be more intellectually humble.
Mind Cafe’s Reset Your Mind: A Free 10-Day Email Course
We’re offering a free course to all of our new subscribers as a thank you for your continued support. When you sign up using this link, we’ll send you tips on how to boost mental clarity and focus every two days.
