Is the Dunning-Kruger Effect an explanation for why the ignorant are blissful?

I recently stumbled upon the Dunning-Kruger effect on Wikipedia. Essentially, this is a cognitive bias where unskilled people rate themselves much higher than their ability and skilled people rate themselves lower than their ability. The ignorant are blissful and the informed are self-deprecating–how interesting! I’m not sure this cognitive bias explains “ignorance is bliss,” but it certainly helps me understand some people better and helps to remove self-doubt. Here’s a snippet from the Wikipedia article:

It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. “Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.”^[1]

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” –Bertrand Russell

So, if you’re feeling like you could do a better job, you may be doing a positively fantastic job already–give yourself credit. But beware, for if you think you’re doing a swell job, you might just be overly confident (On a related, yet confusing, note, depression may be a survival tool so maybe you should be glad for Dunning-Kruger.)

Austin Software Mentorship — Meeting this Thursday

Last semester I received an energetic email about offering UT students one-on-one interaction with local software professionals. At first, I did not understand the vision (sorry Sukant!), but I felt it was worth pursuing so I replied. After a couple emails I was on-board and ready to help out with the noble vision. Basically, students graduate with a lot of skills, but they still have a lot left to learn before they’re truly effective in industry. Why don’t we augment the curriculum and arm students with the skills they need while they’re still in school? From this simple idea, Austin Software Mentorship was born. It’s a really cool group and I’m proud of where it’s going! I’ve met a lot of incredible local people and been humbled and impressed by their range of skills. I have a lot to learn

So why am I am posting? To announce the first major event!

What: Professional-grade classwork: How software professionals might code your homework and projects

Where: TAY 3.128

When: 7pm Thursday, February 11th

More Information
PROFESSIONAL-GRADE CLASSWORK
How software professionals might code your homework and projects

Local software professionals will introduce concepts, techniques, and tools
essential to software development in industry.  Students in a software
discipline are encouraged to work these practices into their software
classwork.

Pizza and beverages will be provided.

I encourage any student or software professional to join the mailing list and get involved; I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Geaux Saints!

Tonight, I had the distinct pleasure of watching the Super Bowl with my in-laws who happen to be huge Saints fans. Congratulations to the Saints on an amazing victory! As they say (technically, spell) in New Orleans, Geaux Saints! And thanks to my new family for letting me enjoy the festivities with them. I’m sorry that Andrea was not here to celebrate with us, but we’ll watch it again from the DVR when she returns

Scattergories style grading: a solution to obvious homework solutions

This week I read an interesting article about homework and the Internet (shared by Lucas Wiman). The gist is that the Internet has trivialized homework  because students can find answers for virtually everything online. Rather than spend their time thinking about the solution, they Google for similar problems and copy the work. I found this to be largely true last semester when I TA’d a course on project management–note: I am not implying that the students cheated! Read on! Whenever students asked for help, I referred to the book then Googled for additional hints. In my searches, I inevitably found the answer or very helpful related information.

It’s true that not all solutions are available online, nor are all questions conducive to Googling, but enough are that it has changed teaching. To discourage rote copying, I propose a simple tweak to grading: award credit only to unique answers–basically, like Scattergories.

Now, giving 100% credit based on originality is probably a little harsh, but 25% for a unique solution seems fair. Suddenly students have two options: 1) copy the answer from the web and receive now better than a  75/100, or 2) use their creativity to arrive at their own solution and receive full credit. Even if students choose a mix of personalizing the web solution, the learning objectives will be met because they have to think more deeply to understand the problem and update the solution in a unique (yet still correct) way.

What do you think? Original answers only

Five continents and counting!

I’m back from Thailand! After 18 days visiting Andrea in the “Land of the free” (Thailand was free from imperialism), I return to my wonderful Austin life. My first immersion in Asia was fantastic; I saw and experienced a ton! I’ve now spent at least a few days on five continents, and every culture has such new and interesting traditions. I’m not sure I’d want to live in Thailand, but the country is worth a visit.

Over on her blog, Andrea posted her side of the story as well as some pictures. I’ll update this post or write some follow-ups to provide more information.

Cheer loudly when people accomplish big things

My sister received her PhD last Spring. She completed the highest level of schooling in a difficult field at one of the top 10 best institutions in the world. Wow! That’s awesome by anyone’s metrics! Yet, at the terminal degree graduation ceremony (that packed a college basketball arena) attendees were completely civilized (quiet). As Allison strode across the stage I let out a loud whoop! of approval and felt eyes on me for my social outburst.

Months later, this still bothers me. Why don’t we (civilized Americans) cheer loudly when people accomplish big things? I’m not sure any amount of noise could truly capture the the effort Allison put in and pride that we all felt, but that shouldn’t stop us from whooping and hollaring with merriment.

The next time someone you love accomplishes something big, celebrate loud and proud!

Vaccines for travel to Thailand make me feel blah

In preparation for an exciting trip to Thailand, I got vaccinated against all (okay, a small subset of) the baddies that seek to share my body. As an American in good living conditions, I have never worried about these ailments, but they are a reality in other countries so I thought it best to be protected. Last Tuesday I was given three shots:

• Hepatitis A and B
• Tetanus/Diphtheria
• Influenza

Tuesday morning my arms were sore and I had the sniffles. By afternoon I needed a nap. Wednesday, I was uncontrollably tired–I slept about 12 hours and lazed around the rest of the day. This felt very much like a weak version of the flu, so I assume the effects were caused by the flu shot.

My fourth vaccine was an oral Typhoid vaccine, Vivotif, which consists of four pills–one every other day. Andrea had taken Vivotif in preparation for her trip, so I had seen one set of potential side effects. To avoid discomfort, I took my pills shortly before bed. My first Vivotif pill was simple; if there were any side effects, I could not differentiate them from those suffered from my three shots. The second pill was okay; I had some dull stomach pains, but nothing awful. After a few days, I saw that the effect seemed to be cumulative. Saturday was unpleasant and Sunday was rough. Monday, my stomach hurt all day and I finished the dose with a feeling of being poisoned, except my body would not, or could not, evacuate the offender. Tuesday I slept almost 12 hours as I had right after receiving the other vaccines; with lingering stomach pain, I ate with care. Today, I’m feeling better and hope to be back to 100% by tomorrow.

The moral of the story: vaccines for travel to Thailand make me feel blah, but they’re better than the full-on illnesses!

Should I have avoided the vaccines? Have you had similar experiences?

A Test in Spam Comments: Poor Hospital Experience

My wife had a poor hospital experience on her trip to Thailand. After blogging about it, she was inundated with spam comments. I’m wondering if bots crawl for the title/body, or if the spam was compliments of cheap Thai labor eager to drum up new business. We’ll see if this post yields similar results!

Update: so far, no new spam comments. I guess something is different…

Stanford Steve is the coolest

Reading ars technica today, I saw an article entitled “New form of entanglement plays with time and energy.” It sounded cool and important, from what I could understand. I skimmed the article, then I clicked on the link to the paper in Physical Review Letters and what did I find? The article was talking about work done by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Steve Sensarn. I’m blown away by the caliber of Steve’s work and the fact that a prominent site like ars would cover the research. Congratulations to Steve! Time to step my game up and do something magazine-worthy

Does Ringling Bros really hurt elephants?

PETA is on campus this week, and as I was walking to lunch I saw a cute company van featuring an elephant painted across the visible surface. On the passenger side was the slogan, “RINGLING BEATS ELEPHANTS.”

Ringling Beats Elephants - PETA van

My immediate reaction was, “how else would you control a 5 ton beast?” which is, of course, an insensitive joke; however, the reasoning stands. Elephants are too dangerous to roam freely around people. The much smaller, notoriously docile bovine don’t even wander without restraints (fences, cages, leashes, etc.). Wild animals must be approached cautiously and humanely controlled.

So, with no more than three words and my own imagination I believe PETA’s complaint is either excessive violence or the larger idea that elephants should not be caged at all. As I just said, a certain level of “violence” is necessary to protect circus patrons. I can understand people being upset  excess violence. I cannot understand the idea that elephants should not be caged because that implies they should never be transported out of the wild.

Thinking about it further, I’m not sure I understand the controversy. I personally believe that elephants are wonderful, peaceful creatures. This opinion was formed, largely, by favorable depictions from the circus. My respect for the animal helps reinforce my distaste for ivory or anything that would harm the graceful giants. Ringling has helped many people appreciate pachyderms! I don’t endorse beating elephants, but doesn’t the circus create a net positive? Ringling Bros may hurt elephants in the short term, but they have helped elephants in the long term. Wouldn’t the effort be better spent stopping people that are killing elephants (e.g., poachers)?

Do you agree? Am I missing something?