Why losers have delusions of grandeur
 

The story of McArthur Wheeler was told by social psychologists Justin Kruger and David Dunning in a brilliant paper entitled ?Unskilled and Unaware of It.? In a set of clever experiments, Kruger and Dunning showed that people with the least skill are the most likely to overestimate their abilities. For example, they measured people?s sense of humor (psychologists have learned that almost anything can be measured) and found that those who scored the lowest on their test still thought they had a better-than-average sense of what is funny.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion...Uh fh1fL4tdWP

interesting read, thanks :thumbsup

Weird, thought this was a 12Clicks post.

I worked with a guy who was as mediocre an artist could get -- and he overestimated his prowess in a pretty obscene way. This latest generation of twentysomethings were raised as little princes and princesses, being told their entire lives how special and great they are, and they're entitled to everything.

Summed up nicely on all accounts.
:thumbsup

The ironic thing is that everyone reading this article will assume that the "other" people are the ones that the article is talking about which probably puts them the same boat as the subjects in the article..lol

But the article is sort of silly. If people assume they suck at something, they probably wouldn't be doing it in the first place. So to say that most people involved in an activity overestimate how they good they are isn't really bucking logic or common sense.

I have often wondered why people who are constantly finding out that they are wrong never seem to learn their lesson and start listening to those who regularly turn out to be right.

Surely the next time they're in an argument/discussion they should think "The last 87 times this guy turned out to be right and me wrong, so it'll no doubt be the same again"

It only take a few days of surfing GFY to realize this.

Of course, anyone who played a sport in high school already learned this as
the only people who thought they were better were the ones that never
made the team.

Every guy in the bar that could give Tyson a "good fight" never boxed a day
in their life. I did box and was pretty good and it's like I'm the only one who
will admit that Tyson would beat my ass. :1orglaugh

The bottom line is, you're only good if others tell you that you're good -- and I'm not talking about your mommy.

The problem is today, everyone makes the team and everyone gets a trophy. And worse than that, everyone gets an opinion. :winkwink:

I agree with your last statement though in relation to what people know and don't know. People who have never done something tend to assume it is easier than it is a lot of the time, or fail to comphrend how that <insert activity here> could possibly be difficult at all.

There was a thread here where someone was saying that what Leo DiCaprio does is no big deal, and anyone could it.

I'd go with that any day (rather than the opposite).

I've never met anyone who thought they could take him, but met plenty of idiots who said they would get in the ring with him for a million bucks.

I'd prefer not eating through a tube so I'll be doing neither.

what dicrapio does IS no big deal. while not "anyone" can do it, many many others are out there who can.

It's like all the webmasters that cannot program in PHP or PERL etc...
Every script they want done is "simple" and should not take much time.

The actual script is always more complicated than they thought and always
takes more time and then they come to the board and complain about how
slow their "coder" is.

LOL!

If you truly let others be the judge and jury of your self worth, you're pretty fucked up.
:2 cents:

that's your judgement call eh! :1orglaugh

That sounds like a lack of communication from the coder.
:2 cents:

:Oh crap ...

thus proving psychology is a bogus science.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I've found that the more a person boasts about their skill the less skill they actually possess.

The other thing these type people do is, no matter what, even after getting
a full test study, they still blame the "coder" which they still don't have the
decency to recognize as a "programmer".

:1orglaugh

Nobody gets a fucking degree in "coding".

:helpme

So in addition to these people greatly over estimating themselves and under
estimating others; they are also completely obstinate.

:2 cents:

What cracks me up are people who write PHP and call themselves "programmers." :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh

That's true too.


Added :

I love the ones that create a site that will never have more than a
megabyte of data files but somehow they need SQL to make it work.

What is funny could be based on opinions. People may deny that they are losers.

I think everyone knows someone who overestimates their abilities. If you don't, you probably overestimate your abilities.

I think ambition has nothing to do with skill sets or intelligence. If you want to be good at something you are either born with the ability to do things easily (jack of trades) or you have some under lined reason that drives you.

The truth is people stand out with ambition, especially the stupid ones. So they are always noticed first. Sometimes being too smart can set you back in a lot of important things of life. Over analyzing, Worrying about things that most would not consider, being too safe for fear of looking stupid, not asking questions because you feel you know more.

did you break the news to captain howdy yet ?

Interesting read, some creepy people in the world.

+1

Like the complete weirdos that go on tv talent shows that are really surprised and angry when they get laughed off stage.

Not that it's "bogus", psychology is not a "science"...