I wonder what we've lost ever since Adam Smith started bemoaning the practice of apprenticeships. 7 years under a master could give a person a very solid understand of the topography of their field, where their weak points are, and how to get better. Most of the incompetence in the Dunning-Kruger Effect comes from unknown unknowns, because without a list of things to improve, it's easy to believe 1) there's little left to improve, 2) the gap between oneself and anyone else is small or zero.

I have a few hypotheses to contribute, for those with appetite for unvalidated speculation.

================Tie in with Circles of Competence=============

I believe this to be a hint that was left in the comments by the original author: > do they know who they are? > Alex: good question! The answer is, I think, "not really." The Dunning-Kruger Effect has a fourth principle that I didn't mention, which is that as your competence increases, your self-evaluation diminishes. The most competent people apparently tend to rate themselves below their skill level.

Another hint from Munger/Buffett wisdom: https://fs.blog/2013/12/circle-of-competence/

Taken together, if one feels like there's an area where one has a ton to learn and a good understanding of how to begin filling those gaps, that's probably the start of a circle of competence.

A couple of attitudes to avoid at work would be: "it can't be that hard to figure out" and "use the right tool for the job", because that will just lead to using skills that one hasn't developed before. Perhaps the better thing to do would be to finish the task in a way you know will work, rather than ramping up on another way that might be more elegant or general. Use your circle of competence. Make time for filling in the parts of the map where you know you need to improve, but don't be eager to combine learning with getting things done. If you're lucky, you'll know someone who can code review and show you the better way to do it.

It means the stuff you end up doing won't seem special to you because there was nothing to figure out. It probably feels weird and strange to call that your "mastery".

================A Potential Strategy for those in school or early in their career=============

The importance of picking good schools, good classes, and good places to work early in one's career is hard to overstate. (You don't necessarily need to go to the most competitive school, as long as there are good professors to serve as your DGTS role models.) Once you have the opportunity of working with DGTS role models, do these two hard things: - stop making up reasons for why you aren't incredibly impressed by their ability to deliver solid results consistently - realize that "if I could just focus, I could crank that out in a weekend" is probably not true, and start to map out the skills you'd have to master from those who actually can and do work at that pace. Realize that pulling all-nighters to make more time doesn't count as mastery, and won't be something you can do later in life.

================Imposter Syndrome=============

I wonder if imposter syndrome hides one's circles of competence, as anything one does well will get downplayed in significance, and papered over by insecurities.