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The 'illusion of knowledge' that makes people overconfident
- ggm 4y agoIf you are able to hypothesise a lemma and sort-of see it confirmed in the axioms, you get an amazing feeling of empowerment. If you think you see a corollary, it only grows. The problem comes when you forget that not all things are either lemma, or easy to derive from axioms, especially if you only partially understood them. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. So the "little knowledge is a dangerous thing" idea, is big in this. Learn 1+1 is 2. learn 2+2 is four. Do not understand that "two apples plus two apples is four apples" didn't mean all the apples are equal size, now feel unhappy when somebody has a bigger one..
- a9h74j 4y agoVery important article. One translation: You can explain one level of a stack but imagine you can explain many levels. Overconfidence in self-estimation correlated to limited performance-testing and limited experience with challenges. I haven't finished the article, so of course I am overestimating my understanding of it. Could some results be culture-bound? I've heard that Americans average higher at reporting "I am good at math" while having lower international scores.