Month: June 2007

Irrational Fear

people decide whether a new technology is risky. They don’t do it based on fact, but emotion and cultural assumptions. A response is to not bring emerging technologies to the attention of the public, since they will not contribute rational risk analysis.

Nuclear Secrets Leak

highly classified e-mail dealing with the composition of America’s atomic weapons had illegally been sent via non-secured networks to members of the board of Los Alamos National Security Upon learning of the Jan. 19, 2007, incident, government officials immediately ordered the seizure of computers that had sent or received the super-sensitive information. the fact that the message had passed electronically from person to person without safeguards was quickly designated an “IMI-1” violation, the most serious breach of US national security.

the ineptitude of these people really scares me.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

evolution has its cruel ways. you’d think that would get people killed at a faster rate and select more for knowledge.
2018-06-28:

Interestingly, this effect not only applies to those with lower abilities thinking they are better but also to experts who think they’re not exceptional. That is, the least & most skilled groups are both deficient in their ability to evaluate their skills.