Basketball: "You Can Fix Stupid"

"Stupidity is the consequence of a failure to be aware of one's own limitations." Learning to know what we don't know is critical. People who pretend to know everything cannot be trusted.  

Everyone operates on a different "Circle of Competence" whether we're at work, at play, at home. 

When venturing far from our Circle, bad things can happen. For example, a trip to the 'deep end of the pool' can be fatal. Even the strongest swimmer, dropped far at sea will drown. Strong swimmers may also take risks that non-swimmers do not. 

Although I admire elements of the Princeton Offense, I'm unqualified to teach it. And although I played in a run-and-jump system, I had no success implementing it. Success depends on whom we coach and resources (practice time, assistants). 

"The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills." I'm effective cooking. That doesn't qualify me to operate a restaurant. 

Years ago a reporter asked a Presidential candidate to name ANY Supreme Court decision aside from Roe versus Wade. <Crickets> Recently another Presidential candidate lauded President George Washington for presiding over development of the US Constitution. Except the Constitution (1787) antedated Washington's presidency (1789). 

How can we fix 'stupid'? Think about the diagram. 

• Ask "is that true?" Is information in the "what you think you know" or "what there is to know" true or false? Social media often distorts the truth emphasizing partial or half-truths. One of the five key answers at the Naval Academy is, "I don't know but I'll find out, Sir." 
• Recognize our limitations. Nobody knows everything. 
• Do more work. Ask the origins, benefits and limitations of ideas or policies. 
• Work to increase our Circle (build skills, what we know).
• Work to stay in our Circle (our lane). In The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis tells the story of a Nobel Laureate pontificating on everything at a party. Behavioral economist Amos Tversky approaches the scientist saying, "Murray, nobody in the world is as smart as you think you are." 
• Seek an expert whose Circle is bigger than ours. Maybe it's a mentor or just someone willing to help. 
• Be tactful. Nobody 'wins' an argument by calling another party stupid. We could say, "I haven't heard that before" or "let me get back to you after researching that." 

Lagniappe (something extra). What's in your workout?