Fun_People Archive
18 Jan
Among the Inept, Ignorance Is Bliss

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 100 19:32:07 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Among the Inept, Ignorance Is Bliss

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  ]] The SF Chronicle [[
Forwarded-by: Tom Duff <td@pixar.com>
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL>


  ]] The New York Times [[
Forwarded-by: Jack Doyle <doylej@peak.org>
Exerpted From: inthenews <inthenews@SIGMAXI.ORG>
Today's Headlines - January 18, 2000

AMONG THE INEPT, RESEARCHERS DISCOVER, IGNORANCE IS BLISS
from The New York Times

"NORTON!!!!," rang out the familiar, incredulous cry from Ralph Cramden on
television's "The Honeymooners" after Ed Norton had just "fixed" the
television set, or baited the hook during a fishing trip with the Raccoons,
or... just about anything else. Andy Griffith may have taken a subtler tack
with Barney Fife a few years later, but the source of the humor was the
same: a bumbling know-it-all unaware of his own incompetence.

Long a staple of comedy, the blissful self-assurance seemingly common among
many incompetents is now getting some attention from researchers at Cornell
University. Dr. David A. Dunning, a psychology professor, has found in
studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, that people who
do things badly are usually supremely confident in their abilities. Dunning
and Kruger believe that the skills required for competence are often the
same skills necessary to recognize competence.
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/011800hth-behavior-i
ncompetents.html>

© 2000 Peter Langston