The Socrates paradox goes "I know that I know nothing".
People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
151–160 of 267 posts
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#152I'll say this gets causality backwards. Intellectual humility is a luxury of the obviously skilled. In a room of smart people where everyone is competing for influence and attention, admitting your lack of knowledge can be a real handicap. When I was younger rather than admit anything I just kept my mouth shut. Now when I am in a room, no one questions I know what I am talking about, and I can usually establish my ex…
You're also getting at why it's difficult for those underrepresented in industry to make headway or gain knowledge. It's not as easy as "we have a diverse team". :)
Which brings us to an even more important facet of humility, being aware enough to know you're uncomfortable with certain people _because you're unfamiliar_. Most people are not nearly as cosmopolitan as they imagine themselves to be.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#153A good friend once told, after listening to me bitch about someone who loved to comment on my work, "You can learn something from everyone". I spent some time trying to dismiss that before considering that if he was right I'd already missed out on a lot, and that certainly humbled me because when I started looking for it I found he was right. The flip side to this is sharing what you know when it contradicts what oth…
A perspective I try to keep in mind ever since it occurred to me years ago, is that every utterance is a true statement, given the right context. No matter how mistaken or deliberately deceitful, it adds to your knowledge about the world if you figure out how it fits in. Conversely, every lie is an instance of not telling "the whole truth". It's common sense for most people that there is a clear and moral difference between a straight out lie and leaving out some context, but I think there is a smooth gradient and no bright line between them.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Note that being great in every of these aspects can lead to suffering. Because most people don't and you'll be talked down regularly to the point of breaking. And it's utterly difficult to keep respect for people when you try to be balanced, team oriented and generous when others only know how to assert their POV and limited experience.
I agree with you. My honest answers to each of questions (save 8 and 9) are what the researchers would probably consider the "correct" response. Personally I don't like it when people point out my shortcomings or errors, but I'd argue those questions are under-specified. I may not like it, but I'll welcome it and earnestly assume they have some insight I do not. In any case I think it makes me an unenjoyable person t…
This resonates with me to a surprising extent. My perceived threshold for expressing an opinion is very high, and I also find that I don't really have any particularly _strong_ opinions to begin with.
The "hedge my answers extensively" bit is spot-on, as is the isolating nature of this "trait", unfortunately.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#155A good friend once told, after listening to me bitch about someone who loved to comment on my work, "You can learn something from everyone". I spent some time trying to dismiss that before considering that if he was right I'd already missed out on a lot, and that certainly humbled me because when I started looking for it I found he was right. The flip side to this is sharing what you know when it contradicts what oth…
I find myself in a similar situation - a friend's perspective is that you can learn from anything. Mine is that you should triage endlessly after a certain point, I guess that makes me dismissive. Of course, if I told him "So, you can browse facebook all day and be better off?", he would probably say "You know what I mean." Real "wisdom" is knowing when to be dismissive and when not to be, either extreme is bad, but…
To me, to "learn from anything" requires a certain diversity in your sequence of "anythings". Every now and then you need to try something completely different, and/or explore several dimensions of life simultaneously.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#156The article title is clickbait nonsense: “The findings in relation to knowledge acquisition were mixed. While an online study involving 604 adults (and using the more comprehensive measure of intellectual humility) found the aforementioned link between greater intellectual humility and superior general knowledge, another involving college students (and the briefer intellectual humility questionnaire) found that those…
Thanks for this. I read the title, and my thought process was:
"I agree".
Then:
"There's no way the study backing the article is good enough to draw meaningful conclusions. This is clickbait."
Then:
"I guess if i'm going to be intellectually humble I should still read the article."
I think based on your comment I can safely skip the read, and save myself some time. Intellectual humility is one thing, but I can go read something with a higher probability of being informative instead.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#157I think this article overlooks a crucial factor, which is ego insecurity. People with an exaggerated sense of overconfidence often learn and achieve more, because their overconfidence serves as a buffer against insecurity, and their inflated self-importance gives them motivation to work hard. A certain amount of overconfidence is an integral part of being a healthy, thriving human being. People who are depressed have…
I think this is an interesting point, but responding to the last part ("...a lot of the people preaching this gospel of "you shouldn't feel bad when you find out you're wrong" are faking it too. But that's okay.")
I think there are different levels of "feeling bad". When I'm wrong about something, it certainly doesn't feel good, and in some cases it really sucks, but I don't then generalize that feeling to represent something intrinsic to myself. I think the crux is separating the bad feeling of the instance from an overall bad feeling. Ie - I got this one wrong, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#158Scanning the comments, I don't really see anyone discussing the value of "superior general knowledge". I like knowledge, so I find value in attaining it. However, depending on your goals, intellectual humility will set you back a great deal. Most people use confidence and certainty as a signal, and suppressing these means they'll pick someone over you (for a promotion, for a relationship, for a contract, for your kno…
One can very much be humble and confident. Especially in an interview or promotion situation, I'm proud of and speak to my accomplishments and the skills and knowledge I've been able to obtain, but I can also speak with real honesty about the mistakes I've made, tend to make, and my own shortcomings. I talk about both without hesitation. Though I know it's entirely anecdotal, I've found most of the time those traits…
Yes, I did not mean to say that the two are necessarily exclusive. You can be confident about things you know exceptionally well, or about things from your past (accomplishments). But if you show humility for other things, and start using qualifiers like "most likely", "I suspect", "generally", the majority of folks are likely to pick the guy who doesn't use them.
>Especially in an interview or promotion situation, I'm proud of and speak to my accomplishments and the skills and knowledge I've been able to obtain, but I can also speak with real honesty about the mistakes I've made, tend to make, and my own shortcomings. I talk about both without hesitation.
These are things for which there is no uncertainty: You know your accomplishments, and you know your failures. And it is in a very confined scenario (interview/promotion). What I've found is that demonstrating uncertainty in day-to-day matters can greatly impact whether you'll be considered at all for a promotion/job. My first manager always wanted certainty. If you said "I'll see what I can do" or "I'll do my best", that was perceived negatively. And it would be more negative if a conversation followed where you outlined the reasons for lack of certainty (various risks, dependencies, etc). If you said "I'll get it done", he'd be happy. Over time I noticed it was irrelevant whether you actually get it done. If you said "I'll get it done", and failed, and explained why you failed, things were good. If you said "I'll do my best" and failed, and explained why you failed, his belief was "He didn't try hard enough".
Granted, not all managers are like this (thankfully!). But I've found most people in the general public are like him. Both online and in my personal life, when I've expressed any doubts/risks in an endeavor I'm pursuing, I've been told that I'm setting myself up for failure. And when it comes to non-solo pursuits, they're usually right, but not for the reasons they believe. The key was this:
People who express doubt are less likely to receive help from others.
People who express unrealistic confidence are much more likely to get help from others.
So once again: Hide the humility and fake confidence on the outside.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#159A few years ago the guy I was sharing an office with at work was cleaning off his desk and found a stack of resumes. He said they were all from the batch that I was hired from and asked if I wanted to know why I was picked. Very cautiously I said yes. He told me I was the only one who when really pushed during the technical interview said "I don't know". Their initial strategy had been to start easy on some topic and…
It's really interesting to get a retrospective, once you get to know your co-workers/managers, on what they were thinking when hiring you. It is DEFINITELY NOT what you might expect!
I was once was hired as a "career-changer" because I had worked in one of my early jobs as a science museum staff-member doing demonstrations for school groups. For some reason, the hiring manager thought that was indicative of communication ability and curiosity. I guess it was, but I never thought it to be very important nor formative at the time.
Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge
#160Ah yes. Always knew my superior general knowledge was due to my absolutely incredible intellectual humility.