a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.
And I can add to this that a person with very little ability in a field overestimates your ability in that field, and so because you have greater knowledge in that field than them, you take their estimation of you as proof of a greater degree of knowledge that you really have. This has the danger of building a house of cards, where you become desperate to keep it intact a false degree of competency.
So a little knowledge can infer a lot of knowledge when others have no knowledge in that area. You may then become trapped by your little knowledge, unable to ask questions, for that would reveal your actual lack of knowledge.
How do we foster friendships that creates “question asking”, without creating egos?
How do we help people to perceive that mere knowledge does not indicate much knowledge?
How often have we perceived a question as being dumb out of an inability to really understanding what is being asked and possibly due to the asker not articulating what they really mean?
How often have you not asked a question because you think it is dumb or are having difficulty actually asking what it is you’re thinking?
An idea that I have seen was to have an attitude in conversations that if a question sounds dumb, the default setting is to first say to yourself, “I must not have heard it right.” A skill that we can learn is the ability to tease out of the asker a better question.
We are all beggars helping one another to find more food.
1 John 1:7, walk in the light, be cleansed from sin.