Tuesday, February 03, 2015

[bxdgumlw] Self assessing incompetence

One simple way to determine whether you are among the "incompetent who are not aware of their incompetence" might be to ask yourself: do you have unanswered questions about the topic?

The competent tend to answer "yes" and can quickly reel off many hard, deep, unanswered questions.

Incompetent Person: I feel competent in asserting that 2 + 2 equals 4.

Reasonably Competent Mathematician: What exactly do I mean by "two"?  By "plus"?  By "equals"?  Sure, 2+2 equals 4, but is the answer unique?  Why?  What real world scenario is 2+2 being applied to?  Why is it safe to map these abstract concepts of numbers and arithmetic to concrete objects or situations in the real world?

Incompetent Person: These questions have never occurred to me, or these questions bore me.

Previously.

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