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Why knowing you’re dumb is good

Start from the assumption that you’re probably wrong.

It doesn’t matter why you’re probably wrong. Lack of information is an ego-stroking reason: I’m smart, sophisticated, and as soon as I get more data I will be able to nail this decision. (This is also probably the worst place to be, because your arrogance will not let you understand that you will always have insufficient data to make a bulletproof decision).

That you’re several pistons short of a functioning engine is a bit harder to accept. Actually this is pretty good. If you’re dumb and you know it, you will make good, careful choices within your self-admitted constraints.

That you lack training is the arrogance of the midwit, the A student. Just as you can never have sufficient data, you can never have sufficient education. In fact, the education is likely to blind you to ideas or information or both.

Smart, well-educated. That’s a perilous place to be when you’re trying to decide what’s real and what to do.

Or, to be more precise: believing you are smart and well-educated, and allowing those beliefs to blind you? That is the danger zone.

It’s better to understand that you are dumb. Not in all situations. For some things you are dumber, and for others you are smarter.

It’s better to understand that you are ignorant and illiterate in some areas, and informed and educated in others.

Intelligence, education, and information are not transitive. Being well-educated in particle physics doesn’t make you an excellent salesman. Knowing all about Shakespeare doesn’t make you an expert on tort law.

The takeaway: know yourself. Know that in every field of human endeavor you are likely to be stupid, lack sufficient training, and misinformed.

That’s a good starting point for making a decision.