Okay, so today I messed around with this “Daniel Dunning” thing. I’d heard the name before, but never really dug into it. Turns out, it’s all about how some folks are super confident even when they don’t know much, and others are unsure even when they’re pretty skilled. It’s that whole “ignorance is bliss” versus “imposter syndrome” thing.
My Little Experiment
I decided to see how this played out in real life. I’m no psychologist, but I figured a simple task would do the trick.
- Step 1: Find a Victim (aka my friend). I roped my buddy, Mark, into this. He’s a good sport.
- Step 2: The Challenge.I gave him some basic coding to do. and he know some about coding, some.
- Step 3: The Confidence Check. Before he started, I asked him, “How good do you think you’ll do, on a scale of 1 to 10?” He said a 5.
- Step 4: Watch Him Struggle (or not). Mark did okay, after struggling he did the basic.
- Step 5: The Post-Task Rating. Afterward, I asked him again, “How well did you do, 1 to 10?” He bumped it up to a 6.
See, this is kinda like I guessed. Even though he did a bit better than he predicted, he still wasn’t super confident. He knows his.
So, what did I learn from my super scientific, one-person experiment? People are complicated. Confidence isn’t always about actual skill. And sometimes, a little bit of knowledge (or lack thereof) can really mess with your head. I think next I should test on some one who is so confident about coding, to see what is it like.
