Confidently Incompetent: The Top of Mount Stupid

QUOTE: 

"You've climbed to the top of Mount Stupid."

^{Dunning-Kruger Effect}

 THE MEAT (The Main Idea)

Have you ever done something once and thought, "That was easy. I'm an expert"? Well, it may be possible you are an expert, or it may be that you've climbed to the top of Mount Stupid. But don't fret- it's not lonely up there. You see, climbing Mount Stupid is a metaphor for a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate our abilities early on in the learning journey. This phenomenon is part of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where individuals with limited experience and knowledge suddenly think they know everything. 

Imagine a novice chef who, after making a few successful dishes, believes they can open their own restaurant. Or a new driver who, after a few smooth rides, feels ready for Formula 1. This overconfidence, where someone believes they can excel after limited experience, is a hallmark of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. 

Do you know someone who is currently on top of this mountain? Has that person ever been there before? If so, you've witnessed the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action. Uh... is this person you? If so, that's okay. It's very common. Let's understand how we navigate our learning process before we end up on top again. 

THE CHEESE (Added Depth) 

Before we can fully understand how we end up on top of Mount Stupid, we first have to take a deeper look at what exactly it is. Yes, it can be a funny term or even offensive, but I'm one who has no problem saying I've been there once or twice in my experiences. It's also important to note that this effect is not universal and can vary widely across different domains and contexts. Motivation biases, selective recall, and self-serving traits also play a significant role in factors beyond the Dunning-Kruger effect. 

Keeping those nuances in mind, let's take a deeper look. Dunning-Kruger uses this model to depict four stages of Mount Stupid: Peak of Enthusiasm, Valley of Despair, Slope of Enlightenment, and the Plateau of Sustainability. 

To follow this model, let's look at a real-life example. Imagine a teacher who has been in the classroom for a couple of years. They are doing fantastic work. They've received glowing evaluations. Recognizing their excellent performance, the school administration asks the teacher to chair a grade level meeting. They do an outstanding job, receiving high praise from colleagues and their administration alike. This marks the Peak of Enthusiasm - feeling pretty darn great about what they think they know. Buoyed by this success, the teacher starts to believe being an educational administrator isn't that hard. Confident in their abilities, they pursue a position in school administration. They get accepted into a program, do well in their classes, and soon secure an admin position at a school. They are now faced with managing a diverse staff, parent complaints, navigating intricate federal regulations and state policies, and addressing the concerns of the larger community. Welcome to the Valley of Despair. In this stage, they realize that their skills chairing the grade level meeting don't automatically equip them for the broader and more complex challenges of school administration. They may begin to doubt their abilities and wonder if they made a mistake in taking on the new role. It's at this point they must make a decision: do they quit, retreating back to the classroom, or do they climb their way out into the Slope of Enlightenment? In this stage, individuals are fully aware of both what they know and what they don't know. As they admit where they are open to learning and begin to regain competence and confidence. They move from unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent. In the final stage of the Dunning-Kruger model, individuals reach the Plateau of Mastery, where the skills they've learned become second nature. They can perform their duties without even thinking. They are now unconsciously competent and full of confidence. 

THE OLIVES (A Surprising Element) 

For our twist, I want to take the Dunning-Kruger model and their idea of Mount Stupid and overlay it with another model I am just learning. A friend, Dr. Heather Lyon, recently introduced me to the Learning Pit by James Nottingham (see graphic below from https://www.learningpit.org/).

Both models illustrate the challenges and unexpected dips in the learning process, but from slightly different angles. 

SIMILARITIES: 

1. Unexpected Realization of Limitations: 

Both models highlight a critical moment of realization. With Mount Stupid. people often start with overconfidence and are later confronted with their lack of depth in what they thought they knew. Similarily, in the Learning Pit, individuals frequently don't recognize they're in over their heads until they've already fallen into the pit and they are confronted with confusion and struggle. 

2. Experiencing Discomfort and Challenge: 

Both the Learning Pit and Mount Stupid emphasize the uncomfortable journey through uncertainty and self-doubt. For adults, this means they often enter the Learning Pit unknowingly, realizing only after the fact that they've hit a challenging spot, much like the abrupt wake-up call experience on top of Mount Stupid. While the discomfort can be discouraging, it's also a necessary part of the learning process that leads to growth. 

3. The Path to Deeper Understanding: 

Both models describe a process that leads to more profound comprehension or mastery of skill. In both cases, the initial overestimation is a precursor to a deeper learning phase where true understanding and competence are developed. 

THE DIFFERENCES: 

1. Initial Perception vs. Realization: 

Mount Stupid is marked by an initial overconfidence based on limited experience, followed by a stark realization of one's limitations. In contrast, the Learning Pit often involves entering a learning challenge with some awareness of the difficulty, but not fully grasping the depth of the challenge until you're already in the struggle (or descending down the pit). 

2. Focus on Cognitive dissonance: 

The Learning Pit explicitly focuses on the experience of cognitive dissonance and the struggle to reconcile the new information with the existing knowledge. This is the process of fostering growth through overcoming confusion. Mount Stupid, on the other hand, primarily highlights the person's gap between perceived and actual competence without necessarily focusing on the positive growth that comes from resolving this gap. 

3. Structure of the Experience: 

The Learning Pit is a model that, although adults may not enter willingly, provides a structured framework for understanding the journey from confusion to clarity. Mount Stupid, conversely, is more of an acknowledgment of frequent missteps and overestimations that occur without a predefined structure for a solution. 

Bringing it Together: 

Let's revisit our teacher-turned-assistant-principal example through the lens of the Learning Pit. After assuming the role of assistant principal, the teacher quickly encounters a bunch of complexities that plunge them headfirst into the Learning Pit. Here, they grapple with the uncomfortable realization that the previous expertise, while valuable, doesn't fully equip them for the multi-faceted demands of administration. 

Yet, within the Learning Pit lies the opportunity. As they admit the discomfort and confront the challenges, they gradually ascend the slope of understanding. This phase marks their transition from initial confusion and self-doubt to a deeper, more nuanced comprehension of educational leadership. This is the hallmark of the Learning Pit's transformative power. Eventually, emerging from the pit, they emerge with a refined skill set and renewed confidence. This journey through the Learning Pit mirrors the broader arc depicted by the Dunning-Kruger model, underscoring the universal nature of growth through challenge and resilience. 

Think back to a time you might have found yourself on Mount Stupid. How did you navigate the Valley of Despair? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below!