(no subject)

[gwillen]

Is there a name for the fallacy of assuming, when one is in the dark, that everyone else actually knows what's going on? I don't mean this in a conspiracy sort of way; just a sort of implicit assumption that, when in doubt, other people have more complete knowledge than oneself.

As an example of this, consider real-time strategy games, i.e. Starcraft. I always inordinately fear what's going on in the part of the map that I can't see; obviously my opponent is building up a massive army and preparing to destroy me with it. (Note that this is typically not true.) But I fail to properly take account, in my own strategy, of the fact that my opponent cannot, in fact, see what I'm up to either, and may well fear that unknown; and that I should be using this to my advantage.

Does everyone do this? Is there a name for it?

Comments

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

In grad school it is called "impostor syndrome". i.e. omg crap everyone around me is so smart, I mean, I thought I was smart, but jesus christ how do they write so many papers and sound so competent and knowledgeable about everything, there's no way I'm making real progress understanding the unlimited well of human knowledge the way they are, shit, I'm just faking it and eventually I'll be found out.

And I'm to understand the vast majority of grad students feel this way at least some of the time, if not most of the time. And let me tell you, knowing that this is a common thing doesn't make the feeling go away.

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

Huh, yeah, that is clearly the same phenomenon. (Impostor syndrome is of course not limited to grad school either.)

[edanaher.livejournal.com]

I totally have this. Though for me, knowing that it's common actually more or less has made it go away. I learned back in high school trying to fix computers that *nobody* knows what they're doing, and pretty much everybody is just "faking it". (Of course, there are some people who think they know what they're doing; these tend to be the people that actually know the least.) So I'm doing my best to fake being a grad student, and I haven't been kicked out yet...

:-D

[aisa0.livejournal.com]

Fake it until you've got it!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

this reminded me of http://www.xkcd.com/627/

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

Hm, yeah, that's another good example.

I really like Akiva's proposed name "fog of war fallacy" for this phenomenon. Let's make a wikipedia article for it! ;-)

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahahahahahah

[roseandsigil.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the things that is cool about grad school is reaching the point where you can say "I have this question and it is not obvious", even if no one has asked it yet.

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I've reached the point where I'm almost comfortable with the idea that, if I have a question, it's at least non-obvious enough that it's reasonable for me to ask it. Of course, I do make a point of asking someone who agrees with that perspective. ;-)