-- Bertrand Russell
Fast-forward to 1999, and psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger provided compelling scientific grounding to Russell’s observation. Through various experiments assessing people’s gap between their self-estimated and actual talents in reasoning, grammar, and humor tasks, they found that, to their and most people’s surprise, incompetent participants pranced about with unwarranted confidence, while the wise second-guessed their brilliance. In short, people are probably not as smart as they think, though this includes the (less common) possibility that they are actually smarter than that.
Overconfident people make lousy business decisions, and overconfident entrepreneurs lead startups in to an early grave. Or overconfident CEOs likely lead their companies’ stock price to crash. And outside of business, overconfident doctors often end up making erratic diagnoses. And let’s not forget the distress of surrounding oneself with overconfident folks, which can be as peaceful as attempting to meditate in the middle of a rock concert.
Excessive modesty can also be a liability. Habitually underestimating your performance can erode your self-confidence, hurt your future performance, and stress you out. The infamous imposter syndrome, characterized by chronic self-doubt, is especially common among high performers. Plus, if you are constantly underestimating yourself, you might miss out on chances to move up in your career. And that is just not fair not only for you but for your company. Continue here....
-- Tomas Chamorro Premuzic and Sunny Lee
