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> the cultural norm is that they must be humble then they stand no chance against the many incompetent I don't think this is a cultural norm so much as just th
by gregmac 6y ago
> the cultural norm is that they must be humble then they stand no chance against the many incompetent
I don't think this is a cultural norm so much as just the Dunning-Kruger effect [1] in play. People who are highly competent still realize there is much they don't know, and that makes them humble. I suspect if you go and find someone widely recognized as an expert in pretty much any field, and ask them if they know all there is to know, you'll find no one says yes.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effec...
- James_Henry 6y agoI'm willing to bet that the Dunning-Kruger effect is shaped by culture and an individual's characteristics, like humility.
- bjornsing 6y agoI don’t know... I often feel like we’re talking about many kinds of humility at once. You seem to be talking more about “epistemological humility”, while I was talking more about “social humility”. Was Richard Feynman humble?
- James_Henry 6y agoYes, from what I've read of him, he was humble in quite a few ways.
- bjornsing 6y agoI agree: He was very humble before reality (as all good scientists have to be). But I argue he wasn’t very “socially humble”...