They are everywhere, after all. They’ve married into nearly every family in the world, and they have mixed and shared their traits far and wide.
So why is it you have never heard of them?
Well, because they are not individuals, but a collective of people cognitively biased to thing they are WAY better at… well… anything than they are.
Like singing.
Like dancing.
Like making a cake.
Like writing.
And like kink.
The uber-doms spouting off about the Won Twoo Way™, the unicorn hunters posting in every poly group trying to find their ‘princess’, the pick-up player holding the flogger awkward AF, the sumissives offering their genitals for torture to every domme within a 5,000-mile radius via copy and paste…
The list goes on.
And, well, you probably not only have met the Dunning-Krugers, but if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been one. Maybe you were born into the family, or perhaps you married in (and divorced a blessed time later), but we’ve all been there.
In fact, one of the four stages of competence is devoted to the Dunning-Krugers; Unconscious Incompetence.
Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence
You don’t know how bad you are at whatever.
Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence
You know how bad you are.
Stage 3: Conscious Competence
Your good at whatever, but you have to pay attention.
Stage 4: Unconscious Competence
You’re good at whatever, without having to focus hard on it. This is often referred to as mastery, and some suggest it takes 10,000 hours PER SKILL.
Anyway, the Dunning-Krugers are not bad people, and they rarely deserve the throat-jumpings they often get.
They are just every day people like you and I who have no idea how much there is to know about the various topics they are making fools of themselves about.
So, I guess my point is that…
Yes, I know it’s frustrating to see so many people failing so spectacularly at the things we love and have put hundreds, even thousands of hours of our lives into, and it’s not YOUR responsibility to educate every one of them, or even any one of them…
Just think that maybe, somedays, you are a Dunning-Kruger yourself, and if you don’t have the energy to help out, then just disengage.
On the other hand, if you try to help out, and they are rude in response, well, then, I’d say they are fair game. There is never an excuse to be rude (although there are often reasons).
Git em, folks!
*smiles*
More info on Wikipedia: Dunning-Kruger
