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Comment by praptak | Hacker News Reader

Title repeats an oft-repeated misrepresentation of what the Dunning-Kruger study actually demonstrated. See http://www.talyarkoni.org/blog/2010/07/07/what-the-dunning-k...

Key sentence: "Unfortunately, Kruger and Dunning never actually provided any support for this type of just-world view; their studies categorically didn’t show that incompetent people are more confident or arrogant than competent people. What they did show is this: [image showing their data, followed by explanation of what regression towards mean is]"

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Actually, the title doesn't make that claim either. It just mentions "incompetents think they're awesome," without claiming that they're more confident than competent people.

If you have to boil the paper down to a handful or words, this title isn't bad. It highlights the interesting bit, which will help people who've heard about Dunning-Kruger remember it. And if the reader is familiar with the misrepresentation of Dunning-Kruger, they'll learn something by reading the article.

(You did read the article, right? It specifically mentions this misconception. Key sentence: 'The findings of Dunning and Kruger are being reduced to "Stupid people are so stupid that they don't know they are stupid."' And since you read the article, the title did it's job.)

If someone said "my front left tire is flat", most people would assume that other tires are okay. That's not an error in reasoning, as some pedants would claim, it's just the way natural language works. So yes, the title is written to imply exactly what you say it doesn't claim.

It's the way natural language sometimes works. I would argue that the intended contrast of "incompetent people think they're awesome" is not against other people's self-opinions, as you're saying, but against a true, objective self-assesment. If I can find an interpretation where someone is correct, I'd rather take that.

I would highly suggest you read all of "Just Good Friends" written by Jeffrey Archer, available in "A Twist in the Tale" - http://books.google.com/books?id=m8uLx11IbtYC&printsec=front...

The theme of the particular story is irrelevant. It's much more about how your linguistic assumptions will ... well, read the story and see! I recommend this particular story because about half of the stories' endings in "A Twist in the Tale" didn't surprise me at all (but I am surprised at how many people I know who were surprised by their endings), but "Just Good Friends" totally got me!

If I had to boil the paper down to a handful of words it would be "people tend to err towards the average in their self-assessment."

If you had to title an article that you want people to read, what would you do then?

I'd start with an article whose honest, not beefed up title is enough to get people to read it.

I always thought the best conclusion to draw from Dunning-Kruger was the low value of self assessment.

Right, if you're not good at something, you're probably also not good at assessing how good you are.

I mean more generally, if you ask someone if they are good at something or if they say they are good at something you probably don't gain much actual information (even if all the participants are acting in good faith...).

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