Dunning Kruger Explained - Is there a path down from Mt. Stupid? l A Better Question Ep. 9

Critical thinking skills might be the antidote for our cognitive biases and a way to begin the long climb down from Mount Stupid - a place explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In this episode we look at the Dunning Kruger effect - the bias which explains why the most incompetent people around us seem to overflow with confidence while the skilled seem full of doubt. Dunning-Kruger has become a fancy way to call someone dumb, which is why I was so surprised to find out it wasn't about intelligence at all - and Mt. Stupid doesn't exist at all.

A Better Question, elsewhere on the web:

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References:

0:00 Intro
1:05 Lemon Guy
3:22 Dunning-Kruger's Findings
6:11 Mt. Stupid
8:07 The Cause of the DKE
12:06 Better Questions
15:25 Final Thoughts

[preethamrn]

I'm usually pretty skeptical of channels that have really quick turnaround times on educational/essay videos for this exact reason (and I'm glad you brought up the point too). I think too often YouTubers with a 1 week turnaround time spend 1 day doing research, 2 days writing a script, 1 day filming, and 2 days finding stock footage and editing. If the goal is to put out a video then that's actually perfect but if the goal is to educate then the 1 day of research barely cuts it however a well polished turd will be watched and recommended to everyone. The incentives are completely backwards.

[uriellevelupriley]

This was wonderful. The depth that you went in on this subject was terrific. In social media I see this phenomenon all the time. As a Master fitness trainer I run into this often.

[jessebarks]

i love your videos so much. theyre both very funny while also being very informative

[turtlebrosforever]

Another enjoyable and informative video! Well researched, planned, and excecuted. Thank you for your content.

[Naftoreiclag]

Hmm, so what Dunning-Kruger is telling me is that I should just stay at (0, 0) and I'll never get trapped on that mountain! 😎

[Kharakian]

The main insights I gained out of this that people are confident about showing the Dunning-Kruger graph which is ironic, and that you are never off the mountain but your opinion on how high up you are changes as you climb. Imagine climbing a tall mountain with clouds above you. You look back and remark that you've come so far, but the clouds hide the fact that you are still at the base of this ascent.

[bland]

An interesting side-effect or maybe parallel effect is "Imposter Syndrome" where people think they've erroneously been accepted into a job field, program, etc. It seems to be really common in graduate programs or higher education in general. Seems related to that low slope on the right side of the D-K graph.
Really interesting video as always. I think cognitive bias needs to be more focused on as society becomes more well connected but also more isolated/bubbled.

[jonathansourdough]

Hey man, another great video, can't wait for more!

[fingersprint]

But Mt. Stupid just seems like such a real thing! Thanks for taking a look at the actual data and bringing us around.

[samuelbabajee]

The DK effect has a second effect that I am quite obsessed about People that are skilled dont recognize they are. It pisses me off because it shows what you are talking about with the competence effect. I Can be good at something but am unable to know what and being unable to exploit it

Also what bugges me about the way people talk about the D-K is that uncompetent people are always the others it s like they fail to conceptualise the dumb are us.
Also even if I understand that some people do not progress I really dont think people are incompetent in all domains they often specialized at something somehow

[drllum]

Hmph.
I'd gotten used to articles on d-k getting it mostly wrong. It's been worth checking them out just for the chuckle and the cynical feelings of superiority. (My knowledge on the topic is above average, of course)

But you have stolen that chuckle from me by having a cooler way of looking at it!

Nicely done.

[eumesm]

I deny the racism bias with critical thinking too. Nationalities are as real as races. And races are as real as sports teams.

[socialistagenda]

Im not a chocolate milk expert after all. Just gonna have a quick jaunt down to the local dairy farm, and get first hand experience with the process that creates the most glorious of leche's

[kevinfantastic]

The irony of this video constantly using the pronunciation "biaseez" is amazing.

[Nitrix]

"Sour look on his face."

-_-