It is a truth of human nature that as soon as most people obtain a little knowledge on a subject, they immediately assume they are wise and begin to wield their knowledge presumptuously. People with a little knowledge often become proud, arrogant, and condescending. They place themselves on par with or even above the truly informed, gifted, and expert. As William Shakespeare once wrote, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
This phenomenon of illusory superiority is called "Mount Stupid." It would be nice if the smug folks who scale Mount Stupid discovered that there is far more to be learned than what a ten-minute internet search can possibly reveal. With luck, the cocky pretenders would eventually be humbled, rethink their preconceptions, and place themselves among the novices and beginners where they rightfully belong. But, alas, this type of luck is not to be. No matter where we are on the path to expertise, we almost always judge ourselves to be more qualified, skilled, and informed than we actually are.
The problem we now face, unlike just a few years ago, is that the path up Mount Stupid is well marked and easily traveled. There was a time when gaining cursory knowledge of a subject required the seekers to peruse a book at the local library or to telephone a well-informed friend. It now takes just a few seconds to obtain the knowledge that used to require days or weeks. As a result, superficial knowledge is now accessible to everyone everywhere all the time, which means that more people occupy Mount Stupid than at any other time in human history.
Because Mount Stupid is so easily accessible, SMEs no longer interact with people who are innocently uninformed. Instead, they interface with people who are often arrogantly superficial. The only thing harder for an SME than interacting with an audience that has no knowledge about their subject is interacting with an audience that knows just a little bit about their subject. Welcome to the observation deck facing Mount Stupid.
