The Dunning-Kruger Effect

One of the craziest things brought to my attention during class was the idea that it’s possible not to realize how incompetent we are due to our incompetency. In other words, because of our stupidity, we don’t know how stupid we actually are. As we were listening to a podcast about a man who blatantly robbed a bank without any form of concealment, I was truly puzzled. But it turns out, the man seriously thought that by rubbing lime juice all over himself, he would become invisible and deemed that he could rob a bank as a result.

The most captivating concept about this whole effect is the idea that smart people are the ones aware of this blind spot. For example, a less intelligent person  would believe that what they know is everything there is to the picture. But taken from the perspective of someone more knowledgeable, they realize that there are the “unknown unknowns”.  In everyday life, we try to prepare for the problems and risks that result from our actions. But the mind-blowing question is, what if there are risks and problems that we’re not even aware of and in which case, we can’t come with up a solution for? Apparently, this can be diagnosed as anosognia, a condition where a person suffers from a disability that they’re unaware of. In the story above tells how the life of a women is twisted around and about as she battles this tiresome mental disorder.