When you are beginning it feels like you know everything!

[Josh Burch]

I run into this a lot. It happens when the new guy comes in to work and thinks that he has everything figured out. Before you know it he's trying to tell the star employee who has been there for 10+ years how to do their job better.

It happens in magic too. Someone learns 3 tricks they can do with a double lift and they consider themselves an "intermediate" card guy. In reality, their understanding of card magic is so small that they don't understand what they are missing.

This phenomena has been the source of frustration for me over the years and I recently found out that it has a name. I think it's likely that we have all fallen victim to the Dunning-Kreuger effect at some point in our lives.

 

[Hgagnon]

I have the same situation with someone too! They just started learning magic 3 days ago and have like 3 tricks from YouTube and think the are amazing. It's not necessarily their fault. I think that because they are new they think that is the only type of moves their are in magic and I think youtube has a part in it. If someone starts on YouTube they learn the simple things like a double lift. YouTube to me at least is the same couple of moves repeated by tons of youtubers. So when people see the move used in multiple tricks they think they have it down. Anyone agree?

 

[DisasterTheory]

I legit just had this conversation with my son two days ago lol.

I have found that stupid people actually believe the intelligent people are stupid. Perhaps that aspect is a defense mechanism. The topic came up because I had a sister-in-law that is like this. She has literally accomplished nothing in life, has a belief system that is based on things that have already been proven to be wrong and if you try to politely show her the contradicting reality, it's YOU that's wrong and YOU that is an idiot.

This spills out into various aspects of life.

 

[Josh Burch]

I have found that stupid people actually believe the intelligent people are stupid. Perhaps that aspect is a defense mechanism. The topic came up because I had a sister-in-law that is like this. She has literally accomplished nothing in life, has a belief system that is based on things that have already been proven to be wrong and if you try to politely show her the contradicting reality, it's YOU that's wrong and YOU that is an idiot.

I think it's just another facet of the phenomena.

I for one feel like I have fallen on either side of the equation. Usually, it's really hard to admit that there was a time when we were ever bad at something, especially while we are in the middle of it all.

I look back at my bottom deal. At one point I thought I was on the level of some of the experts out there and I was performing what I thought was the Erdnase bottom deal. I posted my deal online and I received some harsh criticism. It took me a while to look at it and figure out what the problems were. I can say now that it was really pretty bad and that my current deal is still not all that great but it is considerably better.

For me this has happened with politics. I went to school, I got a degree in civil law (pre-law). I keep up on politics. I have maintained an allegiance to a certain party until recently. My understanding of politics has grown but I'm to the point where I feel like there is enough out there that I just don't know and all of a sudden things seem a lot less sure.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

I had a conversation with my friend proving that everyone is dumb, just in their own way lol.

I think it is important to distinguish between "stupidness" and thinking in a different way. One people learn this it becomes soooo much easier to accept other people's opinions and ideas.
I always think I'm dumb at random intervals because I'll say something that is just looking at something at a new angle, but it isn't exactly conventional, so it sounds ridiculously stupid. However, if that means that the idea is stupid, then everything was stupid at one point. I mean, which fool must have thought about making sound reverberate through a wire? Yet that became the telegraph. Steve Jobs must've been dumb, who would've thought to put a phone, a computer, and a music player into a tiny box? It isn't until you think about ideas in a different angle that you learn to actually accept them.

This is especially true in magic. When I first started out, I thought I was "intermediate" after learning a few sleights. 3 years later, I am still calling myself a beginner. I keep seeing people who criticize others because they saw one move. It's actually funny at times. When you learn to accept other people's ways of thinking and performing, you can learn and help so much more.

Eg. People criticized Erdnase so much for he first few decades since that book was released because it wasn't really a magic book (nor ws it meant to be). Yet about a hundred years later... well, you know.

P.S. Bad Example ^ Probably should've used something more recent.

 

[DisasterTheory]

It’s funny because I was just given a “lashing” by another magician today because I made the (legit) mistake of posting something in the wrong group. I basically had multiple tabs open for Facebook and chose the wrong tab and posted a link.

The guy tried to tear me apart, even after I told him it was an honest mistake, apologized and that I’d fix it. In replies to my post, he was being “diplomatic but stern” but in a private message, he went on about implying how superior he, his magic and his people skills were because he performs for people every day, blah blah blah and how my mistake was essentially an Armageddon level catastrophe that he was going to string me up for lol

I ended it with “You’re ridiculous and I don’t have time for your dumb s**t.”

I mean, I’ve been studying magic for 20+ years and I still consider myself always learning. While some people perform for a few months, think they have it all figured out and then their ego makes them almost intolerable to be around or associate with.

The attitude some of these people have, would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad.

 

[ChrisJGJ]

It’s funny because I was just given a “lashing” by another magician today because I made the (legit) mistake of posting something in the wrong group. I basically had multiple tabs open for Facebook and chose the wrong tab and posted a link.

The guy tried to tear me apart, even after I told him it was an honest mistake, apologized and that I’d fix it. In replies to my post, he was being “diplomatic but stern” but in a private message, he went on about implying how superior he, his magic and his people skills were because he performs for people every day, blah blah blah and how my mistake was essentially an Armageddon level catastrophe that he was going to string me up for lol

I ended it with “You’re ridiculous and I don’t have time for your dumb s**t.”

I mean, I’ve been studying magic for 20+ years and I still consider myself always learning. While some people perform for a few months, think they have it all figured out and then their ego makes them almost intolerable to be around or associate with.

The attitude some of these people have, would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” -George Carlin

 

[RealityOne]

I still don't know the true extent of all the things that I don't know.

 

[Josh Burch]

I still don't know the true extent of all the things that I don't know.

"You never knew, you never knew"