I was listening to No Stupid Questions and it was fascinating. In it, they introduce the word, “ultracrepidarianism”, which according to Wikipedia is “the giving of opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge”. Some of you may be familiar with Dunning and Kruger. Delving a bit more into research by Dunning, when we first start to learn something, we can realize that we are not experts—but as we begin to learn a little, we become deluded into believing that we are. This can be rather dangerous—especially for those of us who do cross-disciplinary work. This is basically a reminder for myself to be cautious. I will close with their reference to a poem:
“A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
ALEXANDER POPE, 1711
