I call it the (whatever current twenty somethings generation) arrogance. I work with a 22 year old that has no automotive experience, refuses to get a drivers license, etc. Another coworker and I were talking about the Ford vs Ferrari movie and a little about racing. She knows zilch about this subject. I finally told her to shut her yap and beat it. I see in in the hospital ED as well. It's good to ask questions, as doctors do get stuff wrong, they're only human. Don't come in ask for help then argue.
Why do people strongly opine about topics they know nothing about?
- Thread starter PWMDMD
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Who is doing this? Can you give an example?
You are correct. That, of course, requires people to admit there are things they don't and can't know.
Sure...
Who? People? The internet is a large arena.
Here are 15 examples off the top of my head with examples supplied by AI that I 100% agree with because I have participated in and/or read discussions in the past year involving every single one of these topics. Most of these many, many, many times. I listen to a couple of TikTok lives/pod casts that deal with ask a physicist (all aspects of physics/cosmology), flat earth, religion/God, AI, Constitutional questions, etc. But every one of these topics invites people with severe DK tendencies.
- Economics
- Inflation, tariffs, taxes, interest rates, national debt.
- Many people have strong opinions after hearing a few talking points despite the subject involving complex tradeoffs.
- Climate Science
- People often dismiss or endorse conclusions without understanding atmospheric physics, statistical modeling, or uncertainty analysis.
- Epidemiology and Public Health
- Vaccines, pandemics, nutrition, pharmaceuticals.
- COVID highlighted how quickly people became confident experts after consuming a few articles or videos.
- Cosmology and Physics
- Big Bang theory, black holes, quantum mechanics, relativity.
- These subjects are highly unintuitive, yet attract strong opinions from people with little formal study.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Claims that AI will either save or destroy humanity.
- Many people confidently discuss AI despite not understanding how current systems actually work.
- Nutrition and Fitness
- Diets, supplements, fasting, weight loss.
- A few personal anecdotes often get elevated to universal truths.
- Medicine
- Cancer treatments, hormones, mental health, prescription drugs.
- People frequently overestimate their ability to evaluate medical evidence.
- Law and Constitutional Issues
- Free speech, criminal justice, constitutional interpretation.
- Legal reasoning is often much more nuanced than internet discussions suggest.
- Education
- How children learn, standardized testing, curriculum design.
- Nearly everyone attended school, which can create the illusion of expertise.
- Politics
- Probably the largest example.
- Most political issues involve economics, law, history, sociology, and psychology simultaneously, yet people often hold absolute views based on limited information.
- Religion and Theology
- People often make sweeping claims about religions they've never studied, or dismiss centuries of philosophical arguments after superficial exposure.
- Parenting
- Everyone has opinions; relatively few have studied developmental psychology or child development research.
- Investing and Financial Markets
- Bull markets create millions of temporary "experts."
- Confidence often rises faster than competence.
- Historical Events
- Wars, political movements, revolutions.
- Many people form strong conclusions from simplified narratives while professional historians spend careers debating details.
- Psychology
- Ironically, Dunning-Kruger itself.
- People frequently diagnose others, discuss personality disorders, or explain human behavior with a few pop-psychology concepts.
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I think we are all vulnerable to making sweeping pronouncements based on our own experience. We see something and extrapolate that to being a universal truth. For example, we just had a rather cold and wet spring here, but that doesn't mean the world is getting colder or wetter! My experience is not wrong, but I can't use those facts to make broader conclusions. Same with automotive topics. I know I am prone to it. For example, I have never experienced a major engine failure in over 50 years of car ownership with just ordinary maintenance. Does that mean that engines never fail? Obviously not. My observations are correct, but I have to be careful not to draw too broad a conclusion from them.
We all extrapolate from personal experience. In fact, we'd be incapable of functioning if we didn't. The problem isn't using experience as a starting point. The problem is failing to recognize where its usefulness ends.
The issue isn't that people draw conclusions from experience. The issue is that many people overextend those conclusions into domains where their experience is no longer sufficient. A few years of observing the weather doesn't make someone a climatologist. Owning cars for decades doesn't automatically make someone an expert in engine design. Watching a few videos on cosmology doesn't make someone qualified to dismiss an entire field.
To me, the difference is self-awareness. One person says, "This has been my experience, but I may be missing part of the picture." Another says, "This has been my experience, therefore I know how the entire system works." Those are very different mindsets.
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Quite often an actual owner posts a good experience with a product - and those who don’t own or like the product hurl internet criticism - but seldom from an actual archive with quantitative data. I prefer an up or down from members you feel are far less random …
This just furthers brand wars - back to other threads on objectively …
You could have just said anything and/or everything!
Broadly speaking I tend to read which direction the author of such things/utterances is headed........with a balance of what the typical (not always!) outcome is from such things.
Say -You know there is a yellowjacket nest in the ground under the grass. You can probably find the nest by pounding the ground and having the buggers swarm out and sting you. Or you could observe from a distance safely and see them go about their business whilst you visually locate the entrance then quietly bomb the living shiess out of them.
OR say oil filter efficiency improves with usage/time/loading.
Re point 13 in post 87 above.
When the parents of my confident old friend died, one of his two siblings bought 'the house'.
He took his share (1/3) and invested it in penny stocks.
His high school business class and a few low-level bookkeeping jobs sure had him thinking he was smart.
Later in life, he gave all his savings to a childhood pal who 'became a financial planner'. That guy's credentials included drug arrests and shoplifting.
I learned all this last year, after not hearing from him for 32 years. We met in a restaurant in his neck of the woods.
Don't let a jackass pick a restaurant either.
When the parents of my confident old friend died, one of his two siblings bought 'the house'.
He took his share (1/3) and invested it in penny stocks.
His high school business class and a few low-level bookkeeping jobs sure had him thinking he was smart.
Later in life, he gave all his savings to a childhood pal who 'became a financial planner'. That guy's credentials included drug arrests and shoplifting.
I learned all this last year, after not hearing from him for 32 years. We met in a restaurant in his neck of the woods.
Don't let a jackass pick a restaurant either.
DK runs rampant these days...
You really need to stop using AI to summarize your thoughts, its not working...
In fairness, many of those are vastly open to interpretation. Many of those are predictions - ie this method of parenting works better won't have any proof for 20 years. Same with investing or the economy. Technically a future prediction cannot be proven or disproven so any crazy prediction is technically as good as any other.
How about this one. You often hear amongst the older generation that "kids don't want to work these days", or there living in there mothers basement or colleting some sort of social assistance. Yet labor force participation for 20-24 year olds is much higher than it ever was prior to the 70's. In fact the highest young labor force participation rate was during Gen X - my generation - who are often insulted as being generally aloof.
Yea, well..............intellectual capacity and intelligence don't go hand in hand. I work with lots of pHd's that can assess data, stat's, etc. to the moon, but have difficulty putting on the same color socks in the morning. But everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and I avoid judgement because Karma quickly remedies my thoughts.
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I'm Gen X too, and I remember when we were routinely described as the "slacker" or "apathetic" generation. It's funny looking back on that now.You really need to stop using AI to summarize your thoughts, its not working...
In fairness, many of those are vastly open to interpretation. Many of those are predictions - ie this method of parenting works better won't have any proof for 20 years. Same with investing or the economy. Technically a future prediction cannot be proven or disproven so any crazy prediction is technically as good as any other.
How about this one. You often hear amongst the older generation that "kids don't want to work these days", or there living in there mothers basement or colleting some sort of social assistance. Yet labor force participation for 20-24 year olds is much higher than it ever was prior to the 70's. In fact the highest young labor force participation rate was during Gen X - my generation - who are often insulted as being generally aloof.
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What actually happened is that many of us entered the workforce, took over leadership roles from the Boomers, and proceeded to drive productivity, efficiency, and technological adoption across virtually every sector. We got the output, but it often came at a cost. Longer hours, constant connectivity, economic uncertainty, and a level of burnout that many of us simply accepted as normal.
In hindsight, "apathetic" may have been one of the most inaccurate labels ever attached to a generation.
I'm a pediatric dentist and my specialty is really behavior management of children AND their parents. I have formal training in parenting styles/psychology, childhood psychology and 20 years of experience watching parenting styles and seeing the effect on children and their ability to cope during stressful situations.You really need to stop using AI to summarize your thoughts, its not working...
In fairness, many of those are vastly open to interpretation. Many of those are predictions - ie this method of parenting works better won't have any proof for 20 years. Same with investing or the economy. Technically a future prediction cannot be proven or disproven so any crazy prediction is technically as good as any other.
There is good data out there for things like authoritative vs authoritarian parenting styles. The former, gives children healthy boundaries and a sense that someone is in charge, and the latter crushes their spirit and gives them reasons to sit on someone's couch some day.
The presence of this data doesn't stop people from telling me all the time they are completely justified in terrorizing their kids because that's how they were raised etc. Now different kids need different things and I don't really care to get in other people's business but there is data out there on the topic and it really points in one direction.
Based on this my wife and I chose to be authoritative parents and the end result has been three really good and mentally-well kids. It was easy as that for us and neither of us grew up this way. Some parents would do the same as we did but most just double down and reject what they don't like or don't want to hear.
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What industry are you in? Respectfully, what does your second sentence infer and how is it humorous?We have an old saying in my industry. Tell me how I am paid and I will tell you how I work.
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