This is how you take the pressure off while turning your learning on

When I was younger, I thought I needed to have all the answers. The pressure starts building early and grows. But this piece of encouragement has helped me. I wish I would have had it back then.

The encouragement?

Take the pressure off. You don’t have to be an expert.??

I asked ChatGPT what an expert is and it said:

“An expert is recognised as having mastery in their area of expertise, and their opinions and advice are valued and respected.”

I then looked up mastery and it described comprehensive knowledge. Again, I looked up comprehensive and it described dealing with all or nearly all aspects of something.

There is a problem. If we decide we are experts, we decide we know all or nearly all of something. This leaves little space for a world of learning, possibilities, new ideas, diverse opinions and crazy conversations. It sounds like a boring way to live.?

We don’t have to know all the answers and we are better off not knowing all the answers.

Rather be honest and have the stance that I am learning and I am here to learn. This creates a mindset of absorbing new information. As soon as we get to a place where we think we know it then we stop learning.

Enter cognitive bias

I recently came across the Dunning Kruger Effect which is a cognitive bias. How it works is when we don't know what we don't know, we tend to overestimate our ability. But if we stop learning now, we have stopped too soon.

?

The more we learn and grow, the more we recognise how much we don't know. This keeps us open minded to keep learning so we get to expert level and, with it, expert confidence.

The graph looks a lot like a smile. In that space of little experience and confidence, it is easy to be defeated. But this is actually a space of openness and the ideal space to reach out to someone who is further along the curve than we are.

There are many applications of this. If you are building software, get a partner that has relevant experience and expertise. If you are learning a new language or skill, give yourself time to grow and learn.

It’s in this dip that we can decide to give up or reach out.

The curve in the greater scheme

When I looked up the word expert in Google Trends, something strange happened. There was the Dunning Kruger smile again and again.

?

Every December the word expert peaks. The reason why? Hopefully the experts know. The word is used in millions of ways.

An idea is that often by year end, we look back and reflect and there is no better place to find guidance than from an expert. But we shouldn’t wait for the end of the year to open ourselves up to the expertise of others.

We should always be learning and holding things loosely.

Take the encouragement. Take the pressure off. Take the learnings on.