Such As It Is

Competence versus confidence

artist-confessions:

 Occasionally, I see confessions on this blog complaining about underachieving artists being big headed and acting like they’re the next Leonardo da Vinci, and sometimes I see confessions complaining about good artists putting themselves down and fishing for sympathy.

 So I thought that I could provide some insight as to why artists behave like this. This is also generally useful information for life, as it applies to all skills, not just art.

 Essentially, the reason you see bad artists acting as though they’re amazing is the same reason that people who just can’t sing keep showing up to auditions for things like the X-Factor, American Idol and the Voice.

 In short, they are so incompetent that they don’t have the competence level to realise that they’re awful.

 It’s also worse than just them thinking that they are better than they really are, they also can’t recognise competence in others.

 I’m not saying that these are bad people, they’re usually not, and whether they are is completely irrelevant. This is just a basic fact of human psychology, people who don’t know what they are doing are more confident than people who do know what they’re doing.

 To put this in perspective, let’s talk about good artists and their attitudes to their own levels of competence.

 Good artists, like skilled singers, good writers and people skilled and talented in many fields underestimate their worth in relation to others.

 Let’s use a hypothetical example here, let’s say a popular, creative and technically skilled artist expressed an opinion that they didn’t think that they were very good. This isn’t because they don’t think that they’re not technically skilled, they’ve doubtlessly worked hard to become so, but because they are overestimating the technical skills of others.

 Essentially, this hypothetical artist is suffering a crisis of confidence because they’re giving you, whoever you are and whatever your skill level, too much credit. This lack of confidence isn’t because they think they’re bad, it’s because they think there are a lot of others who are just as good as good as they are, if not better.

 This is especially true for people who pick up skills easily, they assume that other people pick up skills just as easily as they do. This is the problem with talent, with no basis for comparison; people will assume that what is true for them is true for everyone.

 When talented people talk about things being easy, this isn’t them being bigheaded, it’s the exact opposite. They don’t just think it’s easy for them, they think it’s easy for you too. Being bigheaded in regards to one’s own talent is a learned skill borne of excessive praise.

 Without excessive praise, and sometimes even in spite of it, people will assume that they are nothing special.

 Think about your own life, there must have been some occasion when either you or someone you know has expressed surprise at someone else finding something difficult.

 In a way, this way of viewing the world harks back to how children learn to behave around other people. Very young children learn to accept that other people have feelings that differ from their own, and in a way, our own feelings and opinions will always be our basis for what is normal and expected. It’s like finding out that someone hates something that you love, you’re surprised not because it’s unassailably awesome, you’re surprised because their opinion differs from what you expected of them, that they’d share your opinion.

 Again, this says very little about your character, it’s just a fact of basic human psychology. Character is defined by what you do afterwards.

 So, now we know what happens when someone doesn’t understand what they’re doing and what happens when they do, especially if they’re talented, how do we amend this situation?

 Well, in the case of the incompetent, being taught the basic skills of art will allow them to see both their own work and that of others more accurately, even if their skills don’t appear to improve in a practical sense.

 Their over inflated sense of skill is literally down to them not knowing any better, so by teaching them to know better, their opinion of themselves falls into line with their actual ability.

 For those who are highly competent, the best way of correcting their misconceptions is to actually show them the work of others and provide context for their own skills.

 Of course, the research I’m basing this confession on was conducted in the USA and concentrates on US attitudes. There has been work done that suggests that cultural differences are a factor in this, with East Asian subjects showing a tendency towards underestimating their skills and being keen to improve and work with others. This is likely due to East Asian cultures having a more collectivist approach and America having a more individualist approach. Either way, misconceptions about one’s skills and competence will arise one way or the other.

 So, with all this in mind, I hope you’ll be better equipped to judge artists more fairly. As well as to accurately judge your own level of ability, be it in need of improvement or better than you think it is.

 Sources:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

 What I managed to remember from AS Psychology

-harriettereece