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People who know a little bit ("mastered a language, or know some unix commands") are more likely to be confident in their abilities (and accordingly, arrogant a

People who know a little bit ("mastered a language, or know some unix commands") are more likely to be confident in their abilities (and accordingly, arrogant about them) than someone who knows a great deal. That's the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

btn 15y ago
and accordingly, arrogant about them The Dunning-Kruger effect doesn't necessarily imply a narcissistic personality (or any other personality traits); overconfidence in ability is something we are all vulnerable to.
drivebyacct2 15y ago
"""The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority.""" I think if you "master a language", you don't get lumped in with those who know "a little bit". I think you're just talking about arrogant people in general who think that because they know X, they can berate those who don't know X.
- cherring 15y ago
  The fact that "mastered" was in quotes leads me to believe the author may have been implying that they had not really mastered that much at all, but had an inflated opinion of their own ability, which is surely what people citing Dunning-Kruger are assuming as well.
jessedhillon 15y ago
Dunning-Kruger doesn't imply arrogance, just a mistaken level of confidence in one's own abilities, based on a failure to appreciate the magnitude of one's incompetence. Consider a person who plays, for example, a multiplayer game against the same three real life friends on a LAN, and concludes from his performance -- domination of his friends -- that he is an astounding player. Given his knowledge about the game and the skill of other players, it makes sense for him to make this conclusion. However, were he to play online, he would realize that his skills are paltry compared to the those of the best online gamers. Here, Dunning-Kruger is manifested in this gamer's overconfidence based on lack of knowledge, and lack of meta-knowledge (he doesn't know the importance of what he doesn't know). It's based on a genuine mistake in his assessment of his skills, not necessarily arrogance.

btn 15y ago

and accordingly, arrogant about them The Dunning-Kruger effect doesn't necessarily imply a narcissistic personality (or any other personality traits); overconfidence in ability is something we are all vulnerable to.

drivebyacct2 15y ago

"""The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority.""" I think if you "master a language", you don't get lumped in with those who know "a little bit". I think you're just talking about arrogant people in general who think that because they know X, they can berate those who don't know X.

cherring 15y ago
The fact that "mastered" was in quotes leads me to believe the author may have been implying that they had not really mastered that much at all, but had an inflated opinion of their own ability, which is surely what people citing Dunning-Kruger are assuming as well.

jessedhillon 15y ago

Dunning-Kruger doesn't imply arrogance, just a mistaken level of confidence in one's own abilities, based on a failure to appreciate the magnitude of one's incompetence. Consider a person who plays, for example, a multiplayer game against the same three real life friends on a LAN, and concludes from his performance -- domination of his friends -- that he is an astounding player. Given his knowledge about the game and the skill of other players, it makes sense for him to make this conclusion. However, were he to play online, he would realize that his skills are paltry compared to the those of the best online gamers. Here, Dunning-Kruger is manifested in this gamer's overconfidence based on lack of knowledge, and lack of meta-knowledge (he doesn't know the importance of what he doesn't know). It's based on a genuine mistake in his assessment of his skills, not necessarily arrogance.