More Abstract Work Suffers More from the Dunning-Kruger Effect

This week Ricardo returns to discuss the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it is usually more visible in projects and initiatives with more abstract deliveries and products.

It is important to remember that the Dunning-Kruger effect occurs when the professional demonstrates confidence and a sense of competence incompatible with his job's real ability.

This time, he goes back to discussing one of the most critical aspects of cognitive bias and how it is less evident in projects with clear scope and deliveries and much more apparent when the product, service and purpose of the project are less tangible.

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Episode transcript

The transcript is generated automatically by Podscribe, Sonix, Otter and other electronic transcription services.

Ricardo (4s):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the five minutes podcast. Today I like to go back to the Dunning Kruger effect. If you remember, I recorded a couple of podcasts talking about imposter syndrome and Dunning-Kruger, but today I want to discuss one specific point abstraction of work. And then in Kroger, I will stock in recently with a great friend, Claudia Garcia, and he wrote an article for a magazine in Brazil talking about that. And he said, one thing, he said, Ricardo, Dunning Kruger effect increases with abstract work. So let me go back because for some of you, you don't recall maybe what is Dunning-Kruger then in Kroger, it's imagine confidence and expertise.

Ricardo (49s):
So try to plot the sharp confidence and expertise. What is the normal path? If you have low expertise, you have low confidence. You don't talk with, you know, like a doctor on that, but as your expertise grows, your confidence grows, right? So if you have a lot of expertise, you can talk about a subject with a lot of confidence. What is the Dunning Kruger effect is when you have no expertise, but you have a lot of confidence. So you are an excellent person of talking, sorry, BS, you know, and saying, you, you talk about things that you have no clue, but you talk like a super master on that topic.

Ricardo (1m 33s):
And why I'm talking about this, because today we can divide the work we are doing in initiatives projects in basically two groups, some of them are more concrete. They have more clear product. Lexapro engineering, math, geese are far harder for you to have the Dunning Kruger effect. For example, if I show a triangle, it's very hard to say, no, this is a circle. You know, it's very hard. If I show you a mathematical problem, you don't say, Oh, the answer is relative two plus two is relative. No, no, it's not. It's not. If you're using math, it's not relative.

Ricardo (2m 14s):
So your competence and confidence are white attached. The problem is that many of the works we are doing today, they become so abstract. That is very easy that you I'm saying you or someone else we've out combat. This become so confident that you become so blind. You know, sometimes you try to position yourself as an expert where you have no competence to consider yourself an expert in these is the Dunning-Kruger for abstract work. And we can see this. And these becomes, I would say, this is becoming a Penn denia in today's society, because there are so disruptive things that are not so well that people with a five minute reading, they start thinking that they know everything about that topic.

Ricardo (3m 7s):
And this is not true. Let me give you an example. Covid Covid is a perfect example who here did not receive a message on social media or, or WhatsApp or Facebook or whatever, like a magic, you know, magic drink, three cups of water who said that XYZ or an influencer on Instagram, or are you tuber that out of nowhere in two weeks became an expert in that Covid while nobody knows anything about it. So why I'm saying this, because we need to be mindful on understanding that because doing Krueger is a manifestation of the human psychology.

Ricardo (3m 55s):
It's an opportunity because it's so abstract that you want to Mark your footprint. For example, very respectful. I don't want to talk about here about the religion, but if you take the Bible and you take the different Christian religions, they interpret this part of the Bible in different ways, because it's abstract. It's not math. It's not clear. It's not sharp. It gives you. It's like you. When you listen to music, when someone say something, I can have a meaning that is different from you. It doesn't mean that I know no. What is the right answer?

Ricardo (4m 36s):
And when you were doing, for example, transformation, when you're doing this discovery projects or these innovation processes, it's very easy that you, your boss, your colleagues, your peers, your clients get affected by this Dunning Kruger. They can come and say, Oh, look, I have an aunt that send me a WhatsApp message with all the answers to COVID-19 to take a look on that and say, is this really true? And today we are facing this because there is that megaphone, amplifying, this Dunning-Kruger effect. I see, for example, social media, social media influencers, you tubers, they are creating videos above things that they have no clue.

Ricardo (5m 22s):
They have no expertise, no authority to talk about, but they just talk. They just talk. And because they have 5 million people following them, it's true. Now it's true. You know, and it's not fact based. So these is what we are talking about. Dunning Kruger. So you can see this in politics. You can see this in science. You can see this in many places, and this is becoming more and more dangerous with the speed of the technology we face today. So think always about that. If you handling an abstract thing, an innovation project or something, or you're using agile with, for example, where you don't have an exactly clear shape of how things will be, be just cautious of not getting trapped or not allowing this manifestation of all tra high confidence without substance to dominate the discussion.

Ricardo (6m 23s):
Think about that and see you next week in another five minutes podcast.

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