06/16/2026
The Dunning-Kruger Effect. It essentially captures the paradox that the more you learn about a topic, the more you expand your awareness of what you don't yet know. You see examples of that often in car repair related queries. Suppose someone has a car that won't start and starts asking people why won't my car start. The people that know the least about the car will be the most likely to give an answer because they will only know few possibilities. "My car won't start, what is wrong?" "It needs a fuel pump." says the person with the least idea of the possibilities. The person who knows the most about it will be the least likely to give you an answer without doing testing to determine which of the many possible causes is the problem. A knowledgeable tech: Car won't start = could be a dead battery, corroded terminals, a failing starter, blown fuses, clogged fuel filters, bad spark plugs, or a faulty crankshaft sensor, etc, on and on. No need to list the possibilities which could take longer than just finding out why it doesn't start. The first guy doesn't realize he knows so little, so thinks he knows a lot. It can be charted. In life I think most of us reach that peak (Mount Stupid) in our twenties when we know everything. lol.
