Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thedecisionlab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–74 of 74 posts

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

#71

Post by protocolture »

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…

I remember my dad getting a lamp, and some coffee cups and using them to explain day/night to me. Thats the energy I want to bring for my own kiddos questions.

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

#72

Post by Ferret7446 »

graemep wrote: post #68
RugnirViking wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do be fair, so is the truth. One can be both transgender and jewish (or a military veteran and live in texas!), theres no contradiction in that. In fact I would expect that most people are a minority in at least one way (note the presence of things like "live in new york" in the minorities there!)

I meant ethnic minorities: "Muslim Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%) and Jewish Americans (estimate: 30%, true: 2%). And we find the same sorts of overestimates for racial and ethnic minorities, such as Native Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%), Asian Americans (estimate: 29%, true: 6%), and Black Americans (estimate: 41%, true: 12%)."

Let's not kid ourselves, this is 100% due to mainstream media bias. Well, maybe not 100%, let's say 90%

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

#73

Post by bulbar »

gremlinunderway wrote: post #63
bulbar wrote: post #61

To me it seems, most of the time people will skip their knowledge gaps when explaining things, convincing themselves that there are none. When you talk with a real expert on a topic, you can tell immediately, because answers are comprehensive yet short as well as answers to follow up questions. Some even manage to explain things easier to understand at the same time.

i actually don't think you can tell immediately at all. Being an expert at a thing and also being a good communicator or teacher of that thing is absolutely not the same thing. One can be an expert on a topic and produce research, or tools, or predictions, but could be terrible at pedagogy or communicating those thoughts to those outside of the field. People are really quick to forget that there is an entire field of…

Those are good points. Seeing experts that are also experts in explaining things could just lead to a confirmation bias.

I am however not convinced that having deep and broad knowledge is a field (aka being an expert) is independent of the ability to explain it in simple terms.

Knowledge is a network. Facts that relate to each other. The connection can be horizontal or vertical. Connecting low level understanding with high level understanding to me always seemed to be at the very core of being an expert and with that simple explanations evolve naturally.

I think it's hard to discuss the topic because it's hard to define what it means to be an expert.

It should be a useful definition and what you are pointing at (producing results) might be more useful or it might not be strict enough (for me), or both.

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

#74

Post by ShadowOfThePit »

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 refuse to believe that the average american thinks a third of their population lives in New York City, Texas and California.

And that Black Americans think half of America is black???

Post reply on HN