In 1995 a very mistaken man named McArthur Wheeler thought that if he wiped lemon juice on his face it would make him invisible, after all it is considered invisible ink, right? And logic would suggest that invisible ink would make anything invisible, right?
Wrong. Very, very wrong.
With his lemon juice mask he robbed two banks in Pittsburgh, was quickly identified on security cameras, tracked down, and booked into jail.
The stupidity of this can be explained by something called the Dunning-Kruger effect where people judge themselves as knowing more or being better than they really are.
This became very obvious last weekend while skiing with my 14-year old son. I’ve always had a perception that I was a pretty good skier until he said we should try a double-black diamond that I’d never attempted. (For those of you unfamiliar with how ski runs are ranked, “Green Circle” for easiest, “Blue Square” for intermediate, “Black Diamond” for advanced, and “Double-black Diamond” for expert only. I quickly learned that I was a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect as I slid, fell, and struggled on the hill as my son, and many others, swooshed on by.
The problem is that many of us are blind to our own deficiencies and it’s nearly impossible to know when we’re experiencing this effect, until you’ve already experienced it.
Think: What have you done while developing your marketing strategies that falls into the Dunning-Kruger effect? What will you do to prevent it next time?
Thought: “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” —Confucius