I had a cathartic moment recently. One of those “light switching on” moments that happens not nearly enough. You know what I mean – there’s been some half-formed idea or thought rattling around in your head for some time and, out of the blue, someone manages to describe it concisely and precisely. Suddenly there’s clarity.
In my case it was thanks to the book Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Anyone who’s spent any time with me over the last few months will know this book really clicked with me – it’s a great read and I became a bit of a bore with it all.
So what was the idea?
It’s been described as “illusory superiority”. In short, it’s an idea that describes that the ability to judge whether you’re very good at something is inextricably linked to whether you are very good at it.
It applies to so many business related things (more of which in a minute), but the obvious subject that people relate to is driving. Two questions:
- How many people have you met who confess to be a really bad driver?
- How many really bad drivers have you been driven by?
I’m prepared to bet a reasonable amount of money that the answer to 2 is far higher than 1…
This is the essence of illusory superiority. People that are bad drivers don’t recognise the traits that make them as such. If they did recognise those traits, chances are they would do something about it and learn to become better drivers.
This is when the penny dropped for me in a wider sense. There are quite a few examples of illusory superiority in our line of business (no doubt any line of business). I’ve realised that, over the years, we have all unwittingly developed our own strategies for dealing with them. It’s probably quite easy to see it in others, but I’m sure we could all look to ourselves.
Perhaps you find it hard to tell a good web design from a bad one? Maybe your understanding of time management is so poor you can’t appreciate why mis-management of your own time has such an impact on others? Ring any bells? Feel free to comment below…
* Obviously I’m not really a crap driver. I’m way better than average. That’s what I keep telling myself.
