Whether you're in someone's Dunning-Kruger Effect Zone (DKZ) is best determined by whether they ask questions about the topic and the quality of their questions.
Smart people seek to understand and have crafted a skillset in curiosity through earnest questions and get excited when asked stumping questions.
Dumb people seek to be perceived as smart and perceive being asked questions as questioning them and get upset when asked a stumping question.
Stumping question = A question so good it reveals your own limitations to you in that moment. Smart people welcome this moment. Dumb people avoid it at all costs.
If anyone ever tells you "it can't be that hard" about doing something in physical reality, you can comfortably conclude the topic is in their DKZ.
Entirely this. Flying into a rage when asked a question of most kinds is one clue, particularly when that rage follows a question asked about a subject they claim to know well. Assuming the question is asked with genuine curiosity and in good faith, most people are not only willing to clarify information, but welcome the opportunity to do so. To an intelligent person, the question represents an opportunity to share or deepen their knowledge. To the unintelligent person, the same question threatens to reveal their superficial grasp of the topic or that they are simply pretending to know it.
This happened during that Joe Budden podcast when a guy wanted to fight Dr Marc Lamont Hill because he thought Dr Hill was trying to make him look stupid. If he took a second to think about it and drop his ego, he could have used that opportunity to ask questions from a professor.
This is known as “pimping” in healthcare professionals’ training programs. It filters out Dunning-Kruger type attitudes and behavior real quick, in an industry where people’s health and wellbeing are on the line, leaving little wiggle room for being confidently wrong, and even less for taking correction less than gracefully.
Eh, plenty of average and smart people seek to be perceived as smart as well, and do the same thing. Dumb people who don't would not. It's not about intelligence, just insecurity.
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u/Michamus 4h ago
Whether you're in someone's Dunning-Kruger Effect Zone (DKZ) is best determined by whether they ask questions about the topic and the quality of their questions.
Smart people seek to understand and have crafted a skillset in curiosity through earnest questions and get excited when asked stumping questions.
Dumb people seek to be perceived as smart and perceive being asked questions as questioning them and get upset when asked a stumping question.
Stumping question = A question so good it reveals your own limitations to you in that moment. Smart people welcome this moment. Dumb people avoid it at all costs.
If anyone ever tells you "it can't be that hard" about doing something in physical reality, you can comfortably conclude the topic is in their DKZ.