Ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect?
This is the proposition that truly stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are.
Unconscious ignorance, if you like.
A much higher level of awareness is a common trait in hugely intelligent people.
They ALWAYS accept their limitations, and how little they – or anybody else – really understands about almost everything.
So here are some hacks to help you navigate all this:
- Continually and honestly calibrate the extent of your capabilities
- If someone else can do part of your work better than you, let them
- Accept that you can’t be good at everything, and that you shouldn’t even try
- Don’t make overblown claims about what you know, and how you can help people
- Give others credit, free from envy, when they display competence and skills beyond your own
The smartest thing I ever did was accepting how dumb I really am.
Jonny