Why Your Post Isn't Getting Any Love: The Dunning-Kruger Effect #smallpost

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for you, dear Reader, but just one of the questions we need to be asking ourselves when our work product doesn't get the attention we believe it deserves is: Are we suffering from The Dunning-Kruger effect? For those who aren't familiar, here's the description contained within the "List of Cognitive Biases" Wikipedia page: The tendency for unskilled individuals to overestimate their own ability and the tendency for experts to underestimate their own ability.

Maybe you're underestimating your ability. Maybe you're overestimating your ability. You're probably not estimating it perfectly. One of the ways I try to get around the DKE is to ask myself, "What am I telling the audience that they didn't already know?" Every bit of my information which is already known to them is a waste of their time. I can't expect to gain an audience by wasting their time. Of course, using common knowledge to bridge a gap toward a new concept may be necessary, but this is essentially the only justification. This, unfortunately, is not fool proof. I could, for example, be far too incompetent to even conceive I might actually be incompetent. For that determination ... I look to the vote count.

Update: Hive account@maximkichev made a good point in the comments. He said, "I'm a fool! And it's cool!" I think that's another good way to at least ameliorate the DKE. The more open you are to the idea that you might be out of your depth, the more likely you are to realize it when you are. Then, of course, you can do more research, refine your analysis, ... make your stuff better.