According to Wikipedia, The Dunning-Krueger effect is a cognitive bias whereby people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or underestimate their skills.

In essence, what all this grammar means is that The Dunning-Krueger Effect is when someone is overconfident at a particular thing that they are not skilled at. As we all know by now, this is ultimately bad news!

NB: To sound cool, we will be calling The Dunning-Krueger effect DKE in the rest of this article 😄

However, Sadly, There is no doctor’s assessment or procedure to discover if a person suffers from DKE. Yes, there is no Magic to it, the only way to discover it in a person is Self-assessment. Yes yes yes I know it sounds cringe to me too 😢
A person will have to look at themselves in other to assess aspects that are important to their identity and whatever activities it is they are engaged in.

Now unto the reason we are reading this together (This is me impersonating the voice in your head). DKE can badly affect the progress of a person or group of people. And it sucks being that guy whose overconfidence is dragging everybody backwards.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not insinuating that you sell yourself short, I am only saying that we help you recognize if you have been bluffing. I'm going to make a list of things to do to make sure you attack yourself enough to know if you're that guy who's annoying around every one or most people. ‘

• Do you tend to overestimate your level of skill?

• Do you tend to fail to recognize the skills of others because you probably feel you are better than them at that same thing?

• Do you fail to recognize the extremity of your inadequacy?

• Do you claim expertise without providing evidence?

• Do you tend to have limited education or work experience in the field, or you may have a history of making false or misleading claims?

You probably do not like me at this point but trust me we are going somewhere.

How do you overcome the Dunning-Krueger Effect?

I hate to be that guy but overcoming the DKE requires a combination of self-awareness, a willingness to learn and feedback from others.

Appreciate criticism, ensure to always pick the point and strategize on how you can improve yourself (In the first place you feel like an expert so why not find your weaknesses and just fix them to become a demigod at that skill???)

You see, just like the father before our fathers told our fathers who then told us, learning is a continuous process, there is always something new out there to learn about your field or outside your field, so if you stop learning you are shooting yourself in the leg.

Be aware of your limitations. This way, you can always recognize anytime you are overestimating your abilities. This can help you avoid making mistakes or poor decisions based on false assumptions.

You can find a mentor or coach who can provide guidance and support as you develop your skills and expertise.

As techies and really in all fields, it is important that we ensure that we are clear of the DKE as it will help our career and journey have a more organic, healthy growth.