Life Lessons
My Experience With the Dunning-Kruger Effect
Why you should never take advice from strangers on the internet
When I started running I joined a website called Beginner Triathlete. I’m not much into triathlons, but my husband was, so we both joined to meet others and to learn more about our sports.
As is par for the course in my life, I began obsessing over running. This doesn’t mean actually running; it means reading about running (clearly the much easier choice of the two). I joined a few other websites as well, eager to learn from those who had been running for a long time.
Not only did I join, but after running for a few months I began handing out advice. Like a child who knows the answer in class, my hand waving frantically with the answer that I was positive I knew. After a year of running, I was basically an expert. Right? I mean, compared to these other guys who were only just getting started I had a ton of wisdom to share.
Little did I know, I was at the peak of Mt. Stupid.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a phenomenon that we all experience. We think we know more than we actually do. We learn a small slice of information or spend a day reading and suddenly we’re experts in our own eyes, ready to thrust our “expertise” on an unsuspecting world.
Someone on a forum kindly called me out after I gave a piece of what was most likely dubious running advice. While they didn’t mention this effect by name, it’s clearly what I was experiencing at the time.
The more we think we know, the less we actually know. But we don’t know how much we don’t know, so we tell others all about how much we know.
And this, my friends, is why you shouldn’t take advice from strangers on the internet unless you’re sure they aren’t at the peak of Mt. Stupid.
It’s also why taking an honest look at your knowledge of the subject matter at hand is important before handing your own advice to others.
Ask yourself:
- How long have I been studying this?
- Am I the best person, or one of the best people, to offer advice on this subject?
- Have I looked at this from opposing viewpoints and considered the alternatives?
When it comes to running, I think I’m over Mt. Stupid and somewhere on the Slope of Enlightenment. And now that I’m aware of my own tendency, I can avoid talking about subjects until I’m certain I’m over Mt. Stupid and well on the way to the Slope of Enlightenment.
