Ideas and viruses
We wrote an article some weeks ago, about the new era of learning. The idea was that there is so much information on the internet about every topic known to man. So, if you want to learn about a topic—it’s right at your fingertips. Formats like long-conversation podcasts and audiobooks seem to ‘democratise’ knowledge. Podcasts from Peter Attia and Lex Friedman are diving deep into academic areas like the cardiovascular system and artificial intelligence and are getting millions of views. Years ago, this kind of knowledge was only attainable for those who went to medical school or a specialized university, but now the only precondition needed is an internet connection.
So, all in all, this is a good thing, right? Well… it also has a downside. We’ve had a lot of coffee talks lately about all kinds of topics that we have been pondering, and have been asked about:
Are vaccines safe?
Is meat bad for you?
Is sugar bad for you?
Is Coronavirus dangerous, and if so, to whom?
Did we go to the moon? Ok, maybe not that one, but you get the point.
Anyway, this got us thinking and talking about two things, the notion of a meme as Richard Dawkins coined it in the 1970s and The Dunning-Kruger Effect. Different topics in their own right, but two useful concepts to consider when learning new stuff online. So, let’s get started…
Richard Dawkins coined the concept of a meme in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976. The idea was that ideas and cultural concepts play a similar role in the process of natural selection as gene expression does. But ideas, in the short term, don’t spread because they are true, but because they resonate with us. They can confirm our prior beliefs, give us a sense of purpose, and create small communities online—like e.g., the phenomenon of “Flat Earthers.” They meet new like-minded friends and get a sense of purpose exposing the lies and misdirections of NASA, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and every government on the planet—and all of this from the comfort of their living rooms. The point is that ideas provide much more than knowledge. Ideas can infect your mind like a virus, altering your perception of the world, making you question the wrong things and wrong authorities—and in the process—making you less useful instead of making you smarter—which leads us to The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect describes how people with limited knowledge will speak about a topic with great authority—thereby overestimating their abilities. The flip side is that people with deep and nuanced knowledge about a topic will often speak with great uncertainty about a topic, because they know how complex the topic is—so if you’re in doubt of who to trust, go with the expert, and if there are multiple experts, trust the less overconfident and the one who represents the academic consensus. Don’t get us wrong—uneducated lone geniuses do come by from time to time, and revolutionize the way we think—but it happens rarely.
We think that these two ideas feed into one another when presented online. Charlatans, often actors or other public figures, will speak with a clear voice, and great certainty, whilst the experts often aren’t trained in the art of rhetoric and public speaking.
We still believe that this is the greatest time in history for people that want to get smarter and better, but we also think that caution is important when adopting new ideas. We are the sum of our values and ideas, so it makes sense to be careful of which ones we adopt, and be wary of those that are too certain they are right.
Until next time
Scott and Lennart