Confidence and humility

The interplay between confidence and humility is very important in society. Being exposed to multiple cultures in my life, I have found the topic trivial yet complex at the same time.

With the relatively uninformed, a showcase of confidence goes a long way. Think politics. But amongst higher competence, humility, or acknowledging uncertainty, becomes increasingly important. Think academia. It's also what Dunning-Kruger argues somewhat.

The challenge, though, is to be able to judge your surroundings quickly enough to adjust how confident or humble you want to be to get something done. Because being one or the other constantly isn't likely the best strategy.

The following excerpt is from the book Thinking Fast and Slow.