Timothy Schmid 28 January 2018″We know with confidence only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases”. Knowledge and confidence are undoubtedly the two most important qualities one can possess. Together they create a universal groundwork for success . Basically Knowledge and Confidence complement each other. “ In simple terms, knowledge is the product and confidence is the method of delivery. but the general perception is that the knowledge creates doubts in the mind? It is fact that great brains have sometimes failed to deviate from common wisdom whereas some lesser known person went out of the way and did it, indicating knowledgeable people are too afraid to move out of their cocoon , too reluctant to break the shackles and thus content with status quo.
Then the famous quote from Burton Russel indicates that knowledgeable persons lack the confidence All these quotes gain prominence simply because sometimes all we need is sheer determination to break the deadlock and knowledgeable people are not ready to take that required risk. In the purest sense, confidence is known as what you’re good at, the value you provide, and acting in a way that conveys that to others . Confidence is very important in life, be romantic life or professional life, as it provides us a head start. However to understand the role of confidence on success-“ The University of Edinburgh and the University of California-San Diego found that in a standoff over a particular resource, unless you were sure you’d lose the fight, and as long as what you’re fighting for had value, being overconfident was most often to result in success. Even if you weren’t right, being confident can help you get what you want.”(Weisul, Kimberly) In another experiment by Chabris and Simon involved groups of people working together to solve a math problem. Instead of deferring to the person with the greatest math knowledge, the group deferred to the most confident person, regardless of that person’s knowledge.
In 94 percent of the cases, each group’s final answer was the first answer suggested, regardless whether it was right or wrong, and it was the most confident person present who offered this answer.(Cloud, John) So the confidence does help us sometimes. In a bid to find relationship of confidence with competency, Justin Kruger and David Dunning, discovered a phenomenon now called the Dunning-Kruger effect. They performed experiments that yielded following results1 Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, dramatically overestimate their ability and performance.
2 Incompetent individuals are less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it. 3 Incompetent individuals are less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance. 4 Incompetent individuals can gain insight about their shortcomings, but this comes (paradoxically) by gaining competence. Taken together, these four factors contribute to an inverse correlation between confidence and competence — exactly the opposite of what most of us assume.
The reason for competent people to bit hesitant is that they are aware of their limitations and could evaluate risk realistically.(Dunning–Kruger Effect) All the facts , observations when pieced together indicate that knowledge doesn’t reduce our confidence, it just makes us aware of the hidden danger thus puts brakes on our natural instinct and force us to have a second look on everything. Naturally, lack of information on negative points, will make us feel on the top of world. Ignorance just makes us to overlook certain red flags, it is like a vehicle without brakes, a reckless driver who is blindly racing down, which may sometimes win the race but sooner or later crash is imminent. Knowledge without Confidence – Confidence is the vehicle for practical application. Without it most knowledge will remain at rest, never seeing the full potential of real world value.
Confidence without Knowledge –The confidence can sometimes also be driven by ignorance. Confidence is important but it still does not ensure that the knowledge is applied properly. We can make the most progress when we are able to distinguish between confidence and knowledge and recognized the relationship between opinions and the actual knowledge. If we rely solely on confidence instead of knowledge and experience, we can make some astoundingly bad decisions. But this is equally true that knowledge is useless without confidence, just as confidence is useless without knowledge.
