There’s a sort of reverse Dunning-Kruger phenomenon out there.
Classic Dunning-Kruger is a cognitive bias where people with little knowledge or skill tend to overestimate their abilities, while experts often underestimate their competence. You’ve probably seen a graph like this:
In this classic scenario, you know almost nothing at first, and you believe you know almost nothing. As your knowledge begins to increase, your confidence in how much you know tends to go up much faster. Paradoxically, someone with six weeks of experience in a subject might be more confident than someone with six years of experience, mainly because the person with six years knows there’s a lot they don’t know.
In my version of reverse Dunning-Kruger, it’s ignorance, not confidence, that seems to experience an early and a later spike. I can think of no better way to showcase this paradox than by sharing two videos and talking about them. It’s all right if you don’t have the ability to watch and listen for now (I’ll explain enough for context), but you really might want to bookmark these for later.
Shallow Misunderstanding
ICP (Insane Clown Posse) set the internet on fire in 2009 when they released their video for “Miracles.” Already easy fodder for parody due to literally looking like clowns (and because of their notoriously obnoxious fans), ICP really took it to another level here.
"F***ing magnets, how do they work?"
The line immediately became a meme, and for many, a symbol of uninformed ignorance. To make things worse, this line reinforces the view: "…and I don't want to talk to a scientist, y'all motherf*****s lyin', and gettin' me pissed.” This caused a bunch of videos and memes where scientists explained how magnets work.
The bewilderment expressed in that single line was met with ridicule and parody. Among the most famous responses was a skit by Saturday Night Live (SNL), which took the confusion surrounding magnets to new comedic heights.
The exaggerated confusion and bizarre misinterpretations of science hit the nail on the head. The skit showcases a world where a lack of understanding is celebrated, where the mysterious force of magnetism is reduced to comical bewilderment.
This represents a superficial level of ignorance, where there's no drive to seek understanding beyond the mere curiosity of a phenomenon's existence.
Now, I’m all for admitting—even celebrating—one’s own ignorance. This has long been a key to my own success: recognizing where I have a limitation, and then diving head in, in order to attack it. But this is not the way.
Enlightened Ignorance
In stark contrast to this shallow misunderstanding, there's a level of ignorance that comes from a profound insight into the complexities of the world. Nobody showcases this “enlightened ignorance” better than Richard Feynman, whose perspective on magnets reveals a far more nuanced understanding… or lack thereof.
When asked to explain magnets, his response was refreshingly honest and surprisingly profound.
I can't explain that attraction in terms of anything else that's familiar to you. For example, if we said the magnets attract like rubber bands, I would be cheating you, because they're not connected by rubber bands. I'd soon be in trouble. And secondly, if you were curious enough, you'd ask me why rubber bands tend to pull back together again, and I would end up explaining that in terms of electrical forces, which are the very things that I'm trying to use the rubber bands to explain. So I have cheated very badly, you see.
Feynman's enlightened ignorance goes beyond a simple lack of understanding or an inability to articulate a complex concept. At its core, physics (and our understanding of anything and everything) relies on axioms. At the bottom, we have to assume one thing is true, as long as there’s never been a single piece of evidence to suggest otherwise, so we can build off of that one thing.
Feynman also recognizes the limitations of an analogy. I really love using analogies in my own writing, but even I understand that they often get in the way of true understanding.
While SNL's parody lampoons the simplistic confusion surrounding magnets, Feynman's perspective invites us to appreciate the profound mysteries underlying even the most commonplace phenomena. Whether it's magnets, rubber bands, or the very fabric of our universe, the quest for knowledge is never as straightforward as it seems.
Embracing the complexity, being willing to admit our limitations, and continually striving to learn—these are the markers of true understanding. The juxtaposition of these videos underscores a valuable lesson for us all: that wisdom isn't about having all the answers, but about asking the right questions.
Good points.
I've found that the Dunning Kruger affects the experts as much (I wager more) than the average person. Because it is about the topic, not the title.
For example, we are so siloed in experience these days (the opposite of a polymath) that when asked to speak outside their very narrow expertise, these experts are as ignorant as a person on the street but with an even bigger ego (confidence) that they *should* know the answer. These are a majority of the talking heads on TV.
This is a layer that I think ICP was poking at.
Here's what I really wanna know: If they're juggalos, how come I never see them juggle any jugs?
And don't give me any of that science bullshit. I'm on to you, Bird Boy.