First of all, you’re banished from this blog if you say “who is John Cleese?”
Although, I am fair-minded, I will give you a few hints:
Now that you know who he is…you can be jealous to learn that I had the ridiculous amount of luck to be face to face with him via Zoom (thanks COVID) and talk to him about writing, my experiences with Monty Python, and the Dunning Kruger effect.
So before you yell at me for wasting the man’s time, know that he is well-versed in it as he admitted to me that he has dinner with David Dunning three days a week because they are good friends.
So what is the Dunning Kruger effect? I’ll wait.
All caught up? Cool.
Then there is:
So, now that you get where we are going this this. I asked the man…himself (because I am a huge nerd and I needed to have something to say instead of just giggling and drinking my nervous energy away) if he thinks that Impostor Syndrome is the opposite of Dunning Kruger and to my surprise…he said
“No!”
And among other things, he went on to explain that your job as a writer, artist, what-have-you, isn’t to get so good at things that you don’t think you’re good at them anymore or that you don’t deserve your success.
But to acknowledge what you are terrible at and keep doing it until you get subjectively “better”–which will probably be NEVER. *double pikachu face*
Everyone has blind-spots.
Ultimately, he said it is also important to surround yourself with people that are good at the thing you are not good at so they can remind you you are terrible at it but also how to do it right.
End of the day, it’s a good thing to be humble and acknowledge where your blind-spots are and always be looking to collaborate with other imperfect people.
So, there you have it. Advice from someone much much MUCH more experienced than I am, because really, who am I to be giving you writing advice?
I’ll work on that…