Ignorance

About

• Ignorance is not spending the time to learn - which is not necessarily bad if we have other priorities. It is rather bad if our ignorance is an unwillingness to learn. Stupidity is the incapacity to learn. Two different things. Stupid people can be enlightened. Ignorant people have to be convinced somehow that it is worthwhile to learn. The latter likely requires psychological mastery. This topic is worth studying. Some ignorant people are open to being educated. Ignorance can be a neutral term.
• "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” — Confucius
• The English philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

Solution

• Have someone practice a habit, that is innocuous but solves ignorance, such as asking one of the Socratic Questions
• Getting people to focus on developing related skills, rather than assessing their own abilities, seems to have some effect in reducing the Dunning-Kruger effect in task performance.For example, if someone is terrible at accounting but doesn’t realize it, perhaps you teach them organization skills so that in the process of learning how to better organize paperwork and transactions, they come to realize that they are the world’s worst accountant.
• Dunning-Kruger effect - https://markmanson.net/dunning-kruger-effect
• also might be effective to simply teach people about the concept of blindspots and the Dunning-Kruger Effect to begin with and then let the idea percolate in their minds for a while until they start questioning their own assumptions.14
• Also, as much as you’d like to be a dick to some of these people, it turns out it’s not helpful to ridicule them for how stupid they are.15
• Role models - That said, you can gently peer pressure someone into seeing their ignorance. Try showing them examples of top performers in whatever field they’re so overly confident about.16 This might or might not work depending on how delusional the person is, but it’s worth a shot
• Learning humility -Humility is an important value. In fact, the Dunning-Kruger Effect suggests that humility can be highly practical. By intentionally underestimating our understanding of things, not only do we open up more opportunities to learn and grow, but we also foster a more realistic view of ourselves, and prevent ourselves from looking like a narcissistic assface around others.
• Humility - Gist suggested that there are six pillars for humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus. [1]. Humility requires strength and confidence
• Humble narcissists make good leaders. [2]
• Workplace typically doesn't select for humility
• When somebody says something super ignorant, agree with them and take it to an extreme that even they will find ridiculous.

Books

• Carl Sagan - The Demon Haunted World. "We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces." (p. 26)