IP: more on Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:30:07 +0200
> To: farber () cis upenn edu, geoff () iconia com
> From: Peter Hajba <skaven () remedy fi>
>
>
> > From: the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow [mailto:geoff () iconia com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2000 2:03 AM
> > To: Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber
> > Dr. Dunning, a professor of psychology at Cornell, worries about this
> > because, according to his research, most incompetent people do not know
> that
> > they are incompetent.
>
>         And, as it is said in the end of the article:
>
> > > And faced with incompetence, social norms prevent most people
> > > from blurting out "You stink!" -- truthful though this assessment
> > > may be.
>
>         - I'd like to add that this is a bit of a cultural thing. In
>         Finland, for example, people are said to be very blunt and
>         to the point. If someone sucks, he does get told that he
>         sucks. Well, not quite so bluntly, but the threshold to do
>         so is lower on Finns than in other cultures, I've noticed.
>         The same applies somewhat to Germans.
>
>         I suppose that this does have an effect on a culture's
>         overall competence. Partly it contributes to depression and
>         low self esteem, but I bet it also helps to weed out many
>         cases of incompetence.
>
>         Yours (an IP list member),
>
> -= Peter Hajba
>    Finland