Finally, An Explanation

Today in NOTL:  Cold with occasional flurries and a high of 19F/-7C.  Brr!

Today is Monday, when we normally do our blogtalkradio show, but we're on hiatus.  Too much going on, so we're taking a break.

Yesterday in my reading I came across an interesting article that explains so much for me. Drs.Justin Kruger and David Dunning are psychologists at Cornell University.  In 2000 they won the Nobel Prize for their report, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments."

Basically, their studies demonstrated that not only do unskilled people overestimate their ability, they also fail to realize it when they have failed.  Remember those American Idol rejects who storm from the audition raging that their brilliance was unrecognized?  Case in point.  (Remember Dubya?  Case in point.) Highly skilled people, however, tend to underestimate their ability, probably because the old axiom, 'The more you know, the more you realize how little you know" is true.

The article linked above is a good read.  You can read the report here, if you like scholarly research.  Either way, it makes for some interesting reading.