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How We Dramatically Overestimate Our Skills and Abilities — The Dunning-Kruger Effect
I’ve spent the last few years working on a book about homelessness. When I first got the idea to write something, I had been employed in this field for roughly six years, and I had been primarily helping homeless people get jobs.
Because of my unique experience and perspective, I had no problem cranking out the chapter about the labor market and homelessness, but when it came to all of the other aspects of this complex issue — mental illness, the cost of housing, the racial wealth gap, I had major writer’s block.
Lacking insight on how to address these issues, I often found myself browsing the internet instead of actually writing. In the midst of my procrastination, I stumbled on a random Youtube video called “Why BAD Photographers THINK They’re Good.”
This short video is about a little known but widely experienced psychological phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. In short, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias whereby people who are incompetent at something are unable to recognize their own incompetence. A light bulb immediately went off. That was me when it came to homelessness.
