Dunning-Kruger 4 Years On


In November 2018 I posted about the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Since then a lot has happened, much of it bad.

The latest example must be one of the fastest national disasters on record. In a little over 6 weeks our former prime minister made decisions which damaged our economy to the tune of £30 billion. But this wasn't down to decisions made on a whim. In fact the flawed economic thinking which created the problem was first published ten years earlier, in 2012, in a pamphlet entitled 'Britannia Unchained'. Ignoring the politics, the main problem was that the economic arguments set out were simply wrong. But none of the authors, including the former prime minister, seemed to realise this.

So in 2022 we were all subjected to an experiment, which failed on a massive scale. And we'll all be paying for it for a very long time.

I ended my previous post in desperation. ‘We seem destined to ruled by over-confident dunces who think they know everything, but actually know very little.’

Plus ça change...?