gwillen | (no subject)

(no subject)

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?

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"polyamorous relationship"

I don't know if it has a name... but I usually feel exactly the same way in Starcraft!

i know exactly what you are talking about in sc: becoming a good sc player means working past that feeling. funny thing is: i was able to do that in one of my matchups (protoss vs terran) but not in my others (such as protoss vs zerg). it's as if i unconsciously don't fear terrans as much as a fear zerg. consequently, my win rate against those races is like 80-20 and 20-80, a very big difference.

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.

...Paranoia?

When I'm the last person joining a group, I often make the assumption that everybody else knows each other... which is often falsified.

Over time, I've adjusted my expectations to be closer to the true frequencies.

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