this blog post was inspired by neil degrasse tyson’s recent clapback to terrence howard. this meme was inspired by me having a brat summer at 39:
i learned about the dunning-kruger effect in grad school. then i forgot about it and didn’t remember until it started to pop back up during Covid.
whatever side you happened to be on about ANYthing then would always have at least one “intellectual” talking about how whatever OTHER side was a dunning-kruger douche bag. so funny.
i remember talking to a friend about dunning-kruger back in 2020, so fucking proud of myself that i didn’t have the disease. i talked about it like a phenomenon that only spread among “dumb” people.
i love how life humbles you, though. please enjoy this raccoon dunning-kruger chart:
if you’re new to the kroog, it’s basically this: you start out on your high horse about something (or everything). then, something happens and it knocks you off that horse. eventually, you stop trying to get back on b/c the horse is a sham. and that really SUCKS.
it honestly sucks so incredibly bad that i feel like most people just avoid it. i know i did. i know terrance howard is! sometimes there’s just too much at stake to admit you’re wrong. and the intensity of that varies from admitting wrong is bad for business to admitting wrong would mean a complete collapse of your worldview.
if you let the collapse happen to you, you lay at the bottom for awhile, kinda collecting all the broken pieces. if you were outspoken about whatever it was you were wrong about, it’s probably the cringiest feeling on the planet. definitely in the top 5, 3 even.
but then you start to crawl back out of your little trashcan, reemerging as a brand new student of life. it’s like the blow of being wrong is so embarrassing, you never want to be wrong about anything ever again. you’re a little afraid of new things, or trying to learn what the right answer to your questions are.
there might not be any answers, and that really sucks too. especially in the whole realm of spiritual seeking.
i think one of the reasons i stopped writing for awhile was because so much of the creative well i sourced from was tainted with my stupid ass old righteousness.
it’s funny looking back on how confidently i’d talk about stuff i truly knew so little about. i never ever stopped to think about whether or not the person on the receiving end of my rambling *indeed* knew i was a fucking nutjob.
but i sure thought everyone but me was a fucking nutjob hahaha!
i think going through a complete major dunning-kruger cycle is a right of spiritual passage. it hurts sofa king bad, but the other side of it is so much less stressful.
isn’t it so great that you really don’t need to know much at all to enjoy living here? what a fucking riot, honestly. looking back on it, thinking i knew everything was a burden. who wants that kind of responsibility?
i also kinda feel like you don’t need to go through more than one existential dunning-kruger round in a lifetime.
if you do it right, one is earth-shattering enough. from then on, you just go through life as an eager student. you trust that whatever you absolutely need to know will pop up when you need it.
if you’re in the thick of a fall from righteousness, don’t panic! the tail between your legs will eventually unfurl and peel away from your balls.
and don’t rush it either. it’s really good to sit with this newfound version of yourself. after all, how you approach the world from there on out will be forever different.