Why your job has so many “experts”

Got this quote from here, which is an overall interesting article about why the advent of the Internet has made us all feel smarter:

This happens in politics a lot. You end up thinking you know arguments better than you do. Our research has shown that when college students are asked to assess their knowledge of topics, they are least accurate about how much they know about their own majors. When you’re invested in something, you like to think you know a lot more than you do.

Read that last line for a second.

When you’re invested in something, you like to think you know a lot more than you do. 

What’s the No. 1 thing a lot of people are “invested” in?

Their job.

(It provides purpose, baby!)

So your job is subsequently likely to be filled with a lot of people who, because of their perceived investment in the org and the work, think they know a lot more than they do.

If you combine this with the Kruger-Dunning Effect (everyone thinks they’re smarter than they really are, give or take), your boss being terrified of threats, and confirmation bias, you have a pretty nice three-legged stool for why work can be so soul-draining some of the time. (Oh, and throw in the issue where everyone assumes “formal power” is the same thing as “knowledge.”)