Have you ever asked yourself whether you would amount to anything in your life? That may mean you are a smart person.
Confused? Let me explain.
“We psych ourselves up too much. Like if you try to talk yourself into, ‘Oh, this is a big moment, this is a big shot,’ you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You shot that shot hundreds and thousands of times. Just shoot another one.”
– Kobe Bryant
Have you heard of the Dunning Kruger Effect?
This is a cognitive bias which makes people with higher skills in a domain underestimate their abilities. These people assume that because they know something, others would know that too. And it is much easier to fall in this trap today. Information is available to everyone alike with just a few clicks.
This effect sometimes translates to reduced confidence in our abilities.
This isn’t such a bad thing. This makes us fact check our ideas, review rigorously and present appropriately.
However, it becomes interesting when we look at the other side of the Dunning Kruger effect.
The Dunning Kruger Effect also states that people who have lower skills in any domain are more likely to overestimate their abilities. This overestimation often may lead to higher degrees of self confidence.
Let’s take a couple of example to illustrate this effect.
- We often see newer employees presenting their “revolutionary ideas” within a couple of weeks of joining an organisation. Two weeks is hardly enough to understand the job role one is joining, let alone the organisation. And yet, we hear these supposed “game changers” from relative newbies.
- People make immature trades in the stock market after having read a couple of chapters on fundamental analysis. I cannot imagine a seasoned portfolio manager picking a stock after superficial analysis. But a novice trader may make that trade, because it met the criteria in the two chapters.
This all looks bad, right? But I feel this “bias for action” leads to better outcomes in the longer run.
Confused again? Let me explain.
Because the people who initially have lower domain knowledge are more likely to take more action. Action leads to experience, and experience leads to wisdom.
The more we act, the more our sample space of learning increases. And we can navigate complexities more conveniently.
I know, we are smart people. We should be all for acquiring ample knowledge before taking action.
The longer it takes for us to act, the more we lose in opportunity cost.
There is another mental model which I have recently learnt about.
You can’t be skeptical and put your best foot forward at the same time.
Let’s think about it.
I have played sports my entire life. I played basketball at a national level, I have played cricket competitively and I have also played chess and table tennis. Whenever I have had any skepticism about my performance, I have not been able to perform at my best level.
Sports, like life, are all about focussed effort. Every measure of mental energy exerted in anything apart from the game is energy wasted, which may translate to a loss.
Every free throw I am shooting has to be automated, due to the thousands of free throws I have shot in practice. This way, I am not thinking “what happens if I miss?” or “will I be able to make it?”
Yes, I do have to learn how to shoot the ball to get the best rotation but at some point, I do have to shoot. The game is going to happen regardless of my readiness. So what’s the point?
Skepticism has its place, but that place is not in the middle of execution.
Your execution should be boring to you, because you have done something over and over and over again. This allows you to get out of your own head when you’re actually doing what you need to do.
I am a huge Kobe Bryant fan (R.I.P.), and his ethic of practicing is something that has stuck with me. Here’s a snippet:
Your sample space of work automatically becomes huge when you act regularly.
So don’t get stuck in your own head. Let’s do this thing.
Facets of Life 
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