This is Stuff You Like, you can call me Ursa, I went to see the new Ghostbusters, and, surprising
nobody, I thought it was fun!
Yay!
This isn’t really a Ghostbusters review, because I have no DVD for illustrative clips
of lady-awesome.
But I wanted to talk about Kevin, because there’s this social truth which fascinates
and kind of disturbs me and he’s...quite illustrative.
Three things about Kevin.
Kevin perceives himself as competent, because Kevin is too dumb to know that he’s dumb,
and moreover Nobody tells him he’s not.
Or if they do, 3b, he’s not listening.
So the first two things are the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Which is a thing measured by David Dunning and Justin Kruger after David Dunning read
this article about a bank robber who got arrested after going and robbing a bank wearing only
lemon juice on his face to disguise him.
Because he had heard lemon juice made you invisible to cameras.
Naturally this did not work.
But David Dunning thought hey, maybe this guy’s stupidity is protecting him from an
awareness of his own stupidity.
And so he decided to measure perceived competence vs. actual competence in a test, the results
of which went like this:
So humans as a species tend towards optimism when evaluating their own abilities-
I mean, more than half of people think they’re above average drivers, and frankly the meaning
of average means they can’t all be right-
But generally the Dunning-Kruger effect is that the worse you are at something, the greater
the gap between your perceived competence and reality.
See also: Kevin designing the Ghostbusters logo.
Kevin, basically, is unconsciously incompetent.
The opposite of this is The Gap (not the shop)
as explained by Ira Glass, who I’ve quoted before.
“It’s like there’s a gap.
That for the first couple years you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good.
It’s not that great, it’s really not that great.
It’s trying to be good, it has ambitions to be good, but it’s not quite that good.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.
And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of
a disappointment to you, you know what I mean?
“It is only by actually going through a volume of work that you’re actually going
to catch up, close that gap, and the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.”
The Gap is frustrating, but it’s how you know that you can get better.
So really it’s a positive thing.
The Ghostbusters themselves can perceive the gaps in their knowledge and so improve.
But Kevin has no gap.
If you know what it is you don’t know, as it were, then you can learn it.
But those unknown unknowns, as Donald Rumsfeld would have it...they’ll get you every time.
Not only don’t you know the answer to the question; you don’t even know there’s
a question in the first place.
Which leads me to the third thing about Kevin, and the thing I that find most interesting:
People don’t correct Kevin.
Or sometimes they try, but then they give up, it’s just too much effort or it’s
socially awkward or whatever.
They don’t try to explain to him the things he doesn’t know.
They just disconnect the phone and do it themselves.
The things that people DON’T SAY fascinate me.
Like say you have a friend with a personal hygiene problem, i.e. they smell.
Would you tell them?
Would anyone you know tell them?
Most people wouldn’t.
Because ripping off the plaster and saying something and probably (certainly) hurting
their feelings is worse than changing your clothes every time you get back from their
house.
There are some groups of people more willing to tell it like it is.
Anonymous people on the Internet, for example, say everything imaginable.
But a lot of people on the internet say untrue things, or are incompetent themselves, so
maybe that’s not much help.
So how?
How do you get constructive feedback?
Who do you trust in your life to tell you when you are being a Kevin?
I joined the Internet Creators’ Guild recently, and one of the channels that they have is
critiques and advice.
And I’m hoping that in there I can get advice on my unknown unknowns.
But generally speaking societal norms mean that people who want to be friends, maybe,
won’t say really blunt things.
Not to mention regular nice people generally aren’t blunt to people they don’t know.
“Look Jill, you speak way too fast.
Fast is fine, but inintelligibly fast is not.”
I would say maybe anonymity would improve the situation, but honestly I don’t think
it would.
Honestly what I think would help most is just the expectation that people are going to be
brutally honest with you, and the expectation that if you’re in there you can take it.
Or at least go cry in private.
Regardless though, I’ll keep trying.
Because sometimes nobody tells you you’re being Kevin.
You just have to work it out for yourself.
Thank you for watching the show, and to my Patrons for supporting the show
If you’d like to become a Patron, there’s a link up here,
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And if not, I might see you next time anyway!