A Crisis of Competence Rooted in Confidence

I’ve been thinking a lot about competence as I age. You can probably recall the William Hung ‘She Bangs’ incident on American Idol back in 2004. Hung believes he can sing well, the rest of the world knows he can’t.

I’m seeing this disconnect between confidence and competence even more now, especially as most of us are back in the office post-pandemic. I’m calling it a crisis of competence rooted in confidence.

Studies show we’re bad at perceiving our own abilities and how they relate to the abilities of others. There’s a big difference in being competent and believing that you are. Most, but not all, competent people are confident; but not all confident people are competent. Therein lies the rub. It’s not difficult to determine the competence/confidence levels of others, yet so hard to do for ourselves.

The lesson here? Fuck if I know. Try not to be delusional. Self-awareness is the key. Becoming self-aware is hard. And the topic for another post.