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Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

thedecisionlab.com

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Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#41

Post by ErroneousBosh »

wanderingmind wrote: post #7
Waterluvian wrote: post #4

Everyone should be required to sign up for a year of being followed around by an inquisitive child who will pockmark the landscape of their knowledge with exploratory boreholes. I have multiple environment and science degrees and feel generally knowledgeable and my oldest will put on his best Feynman face and be entirely unsatisfied when I offer and explain “Rayleigh scattering.” I love it. I love it so much. I love…

100 percent can relate on the relentless curiosity of a child. I was dumbfounded yesterday by this question -> if cars go at high speed, and breaks stop it suddenly, how come the friction doesn't generate enough heat to start a spark?

Well, they do - you can get brakes red hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUnEeiZK7bY

And, if you let the pads wear down too far so they're metal on metal they absolutely will spark.

How cool are those rally cars though?

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#42

Post by ErroneousBosh »

neuralkoi wrote: post #19

We are so full of ourselves we called ourselves Homo sapiens, wise man, but wise we don't seem to be. I recently faced this feeling of overconfidence in knowledge trying to think about how seasons work or why rainbows have a curved or arcing shape. You might think seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth, but why? Exercise left for the reader.

> We are so full of ourselves we called ourselves Homo sapiens, wise man, but wise we don't seem to be.

Terry Pratchett said that a better name for humans would be Pan narrans, "Story-telling Chimpanzee".

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#43

Post by prabhanjana_c »

Balinares wrote: post #26

I suspect mainly because you don't and can't understand the world ; you understand whatever simplified model of the world is inside your head and by default it's real unobvious just how simplified exactly.

At least recognizing that we hold simplified model of the world, and knowing that it is limited, is a reasonable place to be in and that helps to explore more.

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#44

Post by ErroneousBosh »

rf15 wrote: post #18
My_Name wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, it is people with a lower ability to understand the world that overestimate their own intelligence because they are unable to imagine anyone being smarter than them, and those on the smarter end who underestimate their own intelligence because they believe everyone else must be able to see what they are able to see. There was a paper, quite famous now, on the topic titled "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How…

I feel like hearing this is dangerous in itself - even if you overestimate yourself, surely you yourself don't overestimate yourself as much as others? Personally, I ran against a closed glass door yesterday. All I hope for is that I was entertaining to onlookers at least.

Funny story about that - there's a hotel in Edinburgh originally built in the mid-1800s, which was gutted and renovated with a lot of facade retention and architectural salvage to keep the look of the place. The centrepiece was the ornate brass and mahogany revolving door.

But when it was finished people kept walking into it the wrong way and getting stuck, and no-one could figure out why.

Eventually they sussed it out - until the early 1900s, no-one standardised on which way revolving doors go. Now, of course, they turn anti-clockwise - you pass people going the opposite way on your left, don't you?

But this one was clockwise.

Yeah I would never have thought of that either.

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#45

Post by samuell »

I don't know ... I actually think I'm quite aware of a lot of how complicated many things can be.

Perhaps it is because I was really curious as a kid about how things work, peeked into things, really tried to understand how it works, and figured it was far from easy.

I also tried to draw bikes, and figured you really have to think it through quite hard the first times, lol.

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#46

Post by fasterik »

skybrian wrote: post #13

Here's an example making the rounds, originally from 2022: there is systemic bias in Americans' understanding of US national statistics about all kinds of subgroups: https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/41556-americans-misestimat... (Although, apparently the poll didn't ask how uncertain they were. The question was, "If you had to guess, what percentage of American adults...")

I wouldn't be surprised if this were a general cognitive bias having to do with estimating proportions, and nothing to do specifically with minority groups.

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#48

Post by vouaobrasil »

I think it's because we don't really want to understand the world. I think it's because we mentally create microcosms that we more or less understand, at least from a practical perspective, and then try and fit the world within those frameworks. Some people get really good at constructing frameworks and manipulating them and they think they understand the world because for them especially, they've ceased to understand this process and they've sublimated it.

Re: Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?

#50

Post by xelxebar »

Waterluvian wrote: post #4

Everyone should be required to sign up for a year of being followed around by an inquisitive child who will pockmark the landscape of their knowledge with exploratory boreholes. I have multiple environment and science degrees and feel generally knowledgeable and my oldest will put on his best Feynman face and be entirely unsatisfied when I offer and explain “Rayleigh scattering.” I love it. I love it so much. I love…

Has anyone here found ways to actively cultivate this kind relentless curiosity within themselves?

People sometimes describe me that way when I start asking unbridled questions. Personally, I find that I can activate this mode when trying to connect answers to some sense of life meaning and the myriad ways that unfolds. Many on the receiving end find the experience frustrating, though.

I think we get used to repeatable patterns more than develop comprehensive understanding. The former feels like accomplishment, while the later feels like perpetual confusion, IME.

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