The Dark Side of Confidence

I’ve written before about confidence. Now here’s the downside:

Confidence is certainty. However, this is often a problem because we all have a tendency to feel more sure of ourselves than our knowledge or ability would allow.

In fact, this tendency is so prevalent that it even has a name: The Dunning-Kruger effect.

Here’s how it works:

Essentially, people tend to be overconfident in the early stages of mastering a skill, while more experienced people tend to be more cautious.

This early false confidence is understandable – you figure something out and think to yourself, “Oh – so that’s how it works!” You form a simple rule in your mind about how it works and believe you can rely upon it.

What this early impression lacks is nuance. All of the ‘what if’s’ and exceptions to your rule.

So if confidence is certainty, leading you to believe you can do something well, this might be incorrect – especially if you’re relatively new to doing that thing.