We literally see the world the way we want to see it.
But the Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that there is a problem beyond that. Even if you are just the most honest, impartial person that you could be, you would still have a problem — namely, when your knowledge or expertise is imperfect, you really don’t know it. Left to your own devices, you just don’t know it.
We’re not very good at knowing what we don’t know. …
Put simply, people tend to do what they know and fail to do that which they have no conception of. In that way, ignorance profoundly channels the course we take in life. …
People fail to reach their potential as professionals, lovers, parents and people simply because they are not aware of the possible.
–David A. Dunning, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Cornell UniversityQuoted in
The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but
You’ll Never Know What It Is
The New York Times
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