Navigating the Dunning-Kruger Effect: Recognizing Limits and Embracing Continuous Learning

Have you ever talked to somebody about a topic that you had a fairly good understanding or experience in and the other person starts speaking to you like they’re an expert, but you started realizing they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about? That’s a cognitive bias called Dunning Kruger effect. Basically, it’s when someone has limited knowledge or competency in a subject and overestimate their abilities. People often don’t know what they don’t know. And what I mean by that is that people often reach a certain bar of knowledge or understanding and they don’t realize that there’s something more above that. The problem with that is that once you hit that belief in that ceiling where you think that you know everything that you need to know, you’re not gonna try to learn anything more than that. And I think a lot of people can be affected by this, myself included. I see this a lot with magic the gathering where people who have a certain understanding of the rules don’t seem to learn anything more past what they already know. And yet those same people offer simple fixes to the rules. But they don’t really understand the mechanics or the reasoning behind a lot of them because they don’t know what they don’t know. So it’s just something for people to keep in mind, especially for myself, because there’s always something new to learn, and I need to remember that.