Incompetence
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Discussion

Bonce

Original Poster:

4,339 posts

310 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
"One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence"

Read more in this brilliant article:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL

How sad, yet true this is. It explains a hell of a lot!

sparkey

789 posts

315 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
Quite a good article. It always annoys me when stupid people don't realise they're stupid. Wait a minute, maybe that's me. Maybe I'm the stupid one !!! Worrying !

CarZee

13,382 posts

298 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
Nice to have some kind of confirmation of what I'd always suspected....

And a mere extension of the truism, "The problem with the stupid is that they don't know they are."

Sad really, but there's not much hope for humanity. Hand me a cleaver & I'll start cutting our losses...

Edited to say: Snap, Sparkey.. and no, if you even wonder if you're stupid, then you're evidently less stupid than people who never even wondered or doubted.

Who said "The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates wasn't it?

>> Edited by CarZee (moderator) on Wednesday 12th March 10:53

Bodo

12,620 posts

297 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

CarZee said:
And a mere extension of the truism, "The problem with the stupid is that they don't know they are."



In other words:
The one who knows, that he doesn't know anything, knows more than the one who doesn't know, that he doesn't know anything.

CarZee

13,382 posts

298 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
Mostly, Bodo, but revelling in ignorance is a special case..

swilly

9,699 posts

305 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
A competent person will continually question themselves and their actions/judgements to check for mistakes and balance etc but in a confident manner.

Or do they??Am i right

Psychobert

6,318 posts

287 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

CarZee said:
Who said "The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates wasn't it?

>> Edited by CarZee (moderator) on Wednesday 12th March 10:53


Yup..

Skill acquisition goes a bit like this;

unconscious incompetence, (don't know what you don't know)

conscious incompetence, (know what it is but can't do it)

conscious competence, (the bit a fair number of people fail at - getting to be good at it if they think about ti)

unconscious incompentence, (just doing it but maybe not being able to explain to the muppets/nupmties how to do it, tacit knowledge sort of thing).

If ignorance is bliss, whay are so many people unhappy these days? (No idea who I plaganrised this from).

Bonce

Original Poster:

4,339 posts

310 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
I don't know any more!

I think the only way to deal with this terrible social problem is to change the law to penalise competence.
That will bring everyone down to the same [sub]standard and we can all live ignorantly ever after.

Psychobert

6,318 posts

287 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

Bonce said: I think the only way to deal with this terrible social problem is to change the law to penalise competence.


There was actually a serious suggestion made a while back,(along the lines of valuing diversity), that we shoudl not hire people on the basis of competence as that isn't fair..

FFS..

CarZee

13,382 posts

298 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

Psychobert said: There was actually a serious suggestion made a while back,(along the lines of valuing diversity), that we shoudl not hire people on the basis of competence as that isn't fair..
I've never worked anywhere that more than about 5% of the workforce could have possibly been recruited on grounds of competence

nubbin

6,809 posts

309 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

Who said "The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates wasn't it?




Probably the same person who said "Ignorance is bliss"



>> Edited by nubbin on Wednesday 12th March 11:42

ciderfrenzy

23 posts

285 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
"The trouble with stupid people is that they bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience"
as somebody once said but I'm too thick to remember who.

CarZee

13,382 posts

298 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

nubbin said: Probably the same person who said "Ignorance is bliss"
perhaps, but the truth seems to be "Ignorance of one's ignorance is bliss" ...

incorrigible

13,668 posts

292 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
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Touche senor Carzee

If everyone who worked here was competant, I would have to keep up with them rather than PH threads

Imelda

793 posts

297 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

CarZee said: [quoteI've never worked anywhere that more than about 5% of the workforce could have possibly been recruited on grounds of competence



Right..... errr.... let me work this out......

I work in an office with 11 other people, making 12 in total.

5% of twelve is..... ummm..... divide by 100..... carry the four..... multiply by 5..... errrr....

.....is 0.6 competent people in this office, which means that even if everyone else is completely fcukin' useless, I rate only 60% competence myself.

Actually, that seems to be a bit on the generous side.

apache

39,731 posts

315 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
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"stupid is as stupid does" Forrest Gump


I think (conscious incompetant)

>> Edited by apache on Wednesday 12th March 12:46

Bruce Fielding

2,244 posts

313 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
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Despite what you might think of Bob Monkhouse, he has had at least one absolutely cracking idea (which he explained on a TV show once). We produce badges which are given to stupid people that say 'I'm Stupid'. Stupid people won't mind wearing them as they won't understand them. Then rather than getting cross with stupidity, we can recognise it and make allowances.

Psychobert

6,318 posts

287 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all

incorrigible said: Touche senor Carzee

If everyone who worked here was competant, I would have to keep up with them rather than PH threads




Same here..

And I'm working from home this morning..

JonRB

80,128 posts

303 months

Wednesday 12th March 2003
quotequote all
The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
--William Shakespeare

Only a fool knows everything. A wise man knows how little he knows.
-- Unknown

More at
www.quotesandsayings.com/gwisefool.htm



>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 12th March 19:19

DanH

12,287 posts

291 months

Wednesday 19th March 2003
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Sweet, I was sent original article ages ago, and this link to the journalists rehash finally gave me enough search terms to find it again :

www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp7761121.html