Imposter Syndrome isn't much better. In my experience, most "sufferers" are more likely to be in over their heads than intellectually humble. You need to be somewhat of an expert to understand your relative level in the first place.

I'm not saying people don't belong, but that the feeling of insecurity, especially among young people, is more often than not justified.

Regardless of whether or not it's actually true, I think there are enough people who believe it to be true that it will stick around; and people believe it to be true because they think they see examples in real life - that's why I believe it to be a useful concept and believe it is a real thing. Obviously I could be as blind, or just wrong, as anyone.

Also Occam's Razor...I suspect the collective damage these two popular memes alone cause would be shocking if there was a way to see such things.

Honestly. Has the original paper even been replicated?

All popular phrases go through that phase where it is recklessly used to the point that you don't know what anyone means by it. At some point it ends up being (for some people) a pejorative that you can read simply as "I don't like it".

Dunning-Kruger certainly has reached that point, you have to really dig to figure out if they're just throwing the phrase around or they're applying it in a thoughtful manner.

All sorts of phrases end up that way. "virtue signaling", a phrase I've never been a fan of has ended up that way too.

Agreed, though I think it's reasonable to say the overuse is somewhat nice as it allows you to quickly identify who suffers from it and ignore them.

Ah, I see what you did there!

+1 and was looking for this comment. Pop-psych Dunning-Kruger concept is based on scant research, and the original paper doesn't even make the claim that people think it does.

IMV DKE pop-psych is popular because it enables a kind of second-order superiority complex where you can say shit like, "Research shows that everyone who thinks they're smart is actually a huge dumbass. Actually the really smart ones are the anxiety ridden imposter syndrome devs like myself!"

At least overconfidence and naked condescension required some courage. The insufferable new meta-game of superiority signalling seems to be feigned humility and hiding ego behind the affectation of "knowing how little you know."