Long-time list member, Saar, wrote a response to yesterday's comic pointing out the parallels with the Duning-Kruger effect.
That sparked an idea for me that I'm calling "Knowledge Ratios." The ratio between what you know & what you know you don't know.
That's confusing, but basically I'm talking about known-knowns & known-unknowns, similar to the Johari window.
Here's how the ratio between "what you know" & "what you know you don't know" works:
- A beginner knows that they don't know anything. Ratio 0:100 - i.e. 0% learned
- An early learner believes they have acquired some useful knowledge & also is exposed to skills they didn't know they needed to learn. Ratio 50:150 - i.e. 30% learned
- An "expert" novice thinks they learned everything they needed. Ratio 150:150 - i.e. 100% learned
- The wise old developer knows that there's always something else that you haven't learned or could improve about what you already learned. Even very skilled developers acknowledge they'll never learn everything. Technology moves fast enough that even if you could learn everything, it'd be out of date very quickly. Ratio 300:∞ - i.e. 0% learned, but that's okay bc no matter how much you learn you'll always be at 0%. This is an infinite game & the point is to keep playing.
This also maps nicely with Erik Dietrich's concept of the expert beginner & why developers stop learning.
I just threw a bunch of links at you & some weird phrases about known-knowns and known-unknowns. Was this post interesting? Does it spark any ideas for you? Clear as mud?
Send me a reply. I'd love to know what you think.