The Psychology of Incompetence - Ron Burk

[stickfigpro]

big tits = big bucks

[1x93cm]

i'm incompetent =D

[greengringo2003]

A brilliant video, and it describes our current pResident in the White House to a T.

[janco333]

The first step to becoming a competent programmer, is to assume you are incompetent...

[OtterpopSlaughterMop]

This reminds me of Robert Anton Wilson's "cosmic schmuck" theory.

[AICorp]

I, personally, love learning from my mistakes.

[TheTruthCommonSense]

that means you are not

[JemyM]

Dunning-Kruger effect.

[100Yottabytes]

So, only perfect people can tell they arent perfect. Doh.

[JustJealouse514]

i hate this guy

[unutilized]

this guy makes me rage

[Lolagoestohollywood]

Only smart people can realize they aren't perfect.

[truestyleoutlaw]

92 percent of people are incompetent

[Kruglord]

72.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[truestyleoutlaw]

how many people do you know that are just smart enough to know they're dumb?

if someone doesn't think they are dumb how would they take steps to become smart?

[Wintermutate]

@truestyleoutlaw

The answer is simple in two parts:

1) If you really think you know it all, it probably means you know nothing. The smartest and most competent people often doubt themselves quite a bit, so if you have no doubts, you're probably not that smart.

2) Regardless of what you know, or think you know, always make an effort to learn more and do more. That way, no matter where you fit, you're always getting better.

[truestyleoutlaw]

@Wintermutate i like that!!

[PhilWithCoffee]

A better way to term some of these people are as educated idiots. They went through the education but don't know their butts from their elbows.

[spleenblender]

Oh wow, that last sentence really boosted my mood! I'm always afraid I'm in the retard department of my company and that I'm going to meet some coders with skills leagues above my own, proving my relative incompetence. So I suppose my worry is my motivation and inoculation. But that just causes more stress... which is brain damage... which makes me less... competent.

Mommy.

[tyrosinekinase]

Surprisingly, programming talent tends to cluster by company, rather than have a bell curve distribution within a company. So, you're probably really not in the "retard department" of your company. However, you might (or might not!) be in a company that has low competence compared to others, leading you to think you're doing just fine until you interview elsewhere one day.

[spleenblender]

lol... it was just a setup for a joke. But okay.

[fantaverde]

that's interesting

[thejixor]

This is what I have been saying for years, but really the sad truth is that this is the reality in every profession.

However I believe its worse; In many areas people's incompetence, or more their false confidence, allows them to excell over more skilled professionals. This is especially true of managerial positions.

[newscat01]

Do new hires have big boobs,

or is it simply that the biggest boob

reaches management?

[lolkatya]

I enjoy tackling new (to me) problems, but I hate writing papers documenting my solution/implementation etc.

I realize that papers properly documenting a solution to a problem help prevent code going out of control, but its so BORING!

[themanyone]

you need zotero

[Chick6517]

Wow this youtube video is really good. I give this video all stars! haha That's really interesting. This made me feel better. haha

[liljohnnotbigjohn]

Well... he certainly made a lot of assertions and was entertaining enough I suppose. Looking at his bibliography might be more telling though ;p

[jamesjdm]

I think it should go w/o saying that most stupid people do not in fact know they are stupid and in fact think they are smart...leading to even bigger and better F-ups on a daily basis!!

[jamesjdm]

I see you are one of the idiots he is talking about.

[ImTheMostViewed]

Yeah:

How do you know that which you don't because you can't?

[usemoreproduct]

substitute "programmer" with job title of your choice. still works great.

[ldexterldesign]

Quality of programming is subjective. I am objectively bad at programming.

[DarwinsChihuahua]

Pffft. I'm a competent programmer. I fix 20 bugs a day!

[nanostuff]

I fix the 30 bugs a day your 20 fixes create.

[octopibingo]

Good stuff.

But it doesn't just work for programmers. I think every aspect of business is run in just this way. Time after time I've seen competent workers let go and incompetent ones kept on, usually for social reason. Kiss up to the boss, always look busy, walk fast and carry a clipboard wherever you go (I'm not kidding, these things work) and you'll have job security.

[lurkist]

Shush! Don't tell everyone my secret.

[robrobbins]

Hah! We don't even have a bug database.

[TheHappyCoder]

Is it standup comedy?

[wookiecontrol]

I know Our lord Satan agrees

[lvecsey]

Perhaps that is the dichotomy: being a competent leader and having incompetents (to some degree) working for you, or the incompetent leader surrounded by (at least potentially) competant employees.

[NecrosisOfLight]

It's quite a Socratic position to take.

"I am the greatest programmer because I alone recognize how counter-intuitive my code is"

[haobaba]

I have worked with very "smart" people that had that type of belief system and it wasn't fun.

[PerfectlyNormalBeast]

Good point. No matter how good your code is, it's crap to the next guy if you don't use proper variable names, and COMMENT.

[NecrosisOfLight]

It's more to recognize that one mind cannot possibly know a world full of coding tricks and secerts, and hence, your code could always be better, but hey, that's good too.

[incekt]

Code a lot, hopefully because you like to. Take on ever more challenging work. Try to associate with smarter, better coders. Keep an open mind.

[dihk]

Catch 22

[lolkatya]

Im an incompetent programmer and realize this :l How to be competent plz

[ITakeYourFood]

have an open mind and don't think highly of yourself. Remain humble and don't think you're superior to others.

That's the way to be competent, but the way to get there either comes from your genetics or through your environment.

If you haven't had yet, then you're gonna have to experience osmething in life to make you realize it.

[merenbey]

@lolkatya, this would be my humble suggestion: don't stick with only one programming language (or only one type like "object oriented programming languages"). try to learn new ones, compare with the ones you already know. pick something you find weird e.g. erlang, or ruby, I don't know (research about it if you don't know what to pick). this approach, in my opinion, gives programmers a great vision, ergo a solid feeling about the very essence of the art of creating softwares to solve problems.