Happy Friday, all. I’m getting tired of reading about why we think Obama’s smart, or stupid, or whatever, and I wanted to pose another question.
Study after study has been done showing that most people will judge themselves to be in the top half of the bell curve for skill at almost ANYTHING. You can ask a group of soon-to-be MBAs where they think they fall in management skills, a group of veteran drivers where they rank as far as driving skill, ask a group of married couples if they expect their marriage to last longer than the national average, and so on. The results are overwhelmingly consistent: most people estimate or predict themselves as being far, far more competent/successful than the “average” person practicing any given skill. Obviously, this is folly - you can’t have 60% of people who all fall in the top 15% of the bell curve at anything, but that won’t stop people from mentally placing themselves there.
So, my questions to you:
1. Do you consider yourself in the top half of the standard intelligence curve (the type of crap that the SAT or GMAT measures)? Top third? Bottom fourth? Get as specific or as vague as you like.
2. What things do you consider yourself to be in the top decile for? Be as specific or vague as you like, but there’s a catch. For every “positive” you list where you claim to be above average, you must list a category or skill set where you consider yourself to be below average.
Curious to hear how honestly people assess themselves. I’m thinking mine over and promise to respond honestly, but I’ll give it a couple of responses before I post.
Study after study has been done showing that most people will judge themselves to be in the top half of the bell curve for skill at almost ANYTHING. You can ask a group of soon-to-be MBAs where they think they fall in management skills, a group of veteran drivers where they rank as far as driving skill, ask a group of married couples if they expect their marriage to last longer than the national average, and so on. The results are overwhelmingly consistent: most people estimate or predict themselves as being far, far more competent/successful than the “average” person practicing any given skill. Obviously, this is folly - you can’t have 60% of people who all fall in the top 15% of the bell curve at anything, but that won’t stop people from mentally placing themselves there.
So, my questions to you:
1. Do you consider yourself in the top half of the standard intelligence curve (the type of crap that the SAT or GMAT measures)? Top third? Bottom fourth? Get as specific or as vague as you like.
2. What things do you consider yourself to be in the top decile for? Be as specific or vague as you like, but there’s a catch. For every “positive” you list where you claim to be above average, you must list a category or skill set where you consider yourself to be below average.
Curious to hear how honestly people assess themselves. I’m thinking mine over and promise to respond honestly, but I’ll give it a couple of responses before I post.