This paper answers why confident idiots run the world. Cornell University published a psychological paper that explains every terrible boss, every loud influencer, and every broken corporate hierarchy. It’s called “Unskilled and Unaware of It.” they tested participants across logic, grammar, and humor to measure the gap between actual performance and self-perception. And the results are wild. participants scoring in the bottom 12th percentile consistently believed they were operating in the 62nd percentile. they were not lying. they were literally incapable of recognizing their own incompetence. the paper revealed a brutal paradox: the exact skills required to master a domain are the exact same skills required to accurately evaluate your own competence in that domain. if you lack the skill, you inherently lack the cognitive capacity to realize you are failing. this creates a dangerous systemic loop. the incompetent are blessed with absolute, blinding certainty. their brain protects them from their own ignorance, allowing them to speak first, demand authority, and never second-guess their decisions. meanwhile, the actual experts suffer the exact inverse. top performers in the study consistently underestimated their rank. because a task was easy for them, they falsely assumed it was easy for everyone else. they hesitate. they obsess over nuance. they assume they have nothing unique to add. we are biologically wired to confuse confidence with competence. the loudest person in the room gets promoted, gets funded, and gets the microphone, not because they know what they are doing, but because they are physically incapable of seeing what they don't. the only defense mechanism is building systems that stop rewarding absolute certainty and start demanding proof of work.

The Man City scandal explained 💰⚽️

This is truly a great man. He has invested more in Ukraine than 185 countries combined. Meet Howard Buffett, Warren Buffett’s middle son. He is 71 years old. He dropped out of college three times. He drinks Dr Pepper and looks for a McDonald’s wherever he travels. Since the beginning of the war, his foundation has become the largest private donor to Ukraine: $1.4 billion. Over four years, he has personally visited Ukraine 27 times. In April 2022, he saw burned-out agricultural machinery and called the president of John Deere: “How many combines are available in Europe?” “Fifteen. All of them were supposed to go to Russia.” “I’ll take them all.” Then came all the available New Holland equipment in Europe. Altogether, more than 100 tractors and combines were provided to Ukrainian farmers. He even tested demining equipment himself - on his own farm in Illinois, detonating explosives beneath rollers. When a Ukrainian deputy minister expressed doubts, Buffett told him: “Stop counting my tractors. If necessary, I’ll blow up a thousand of them.” Andriy Stavnitser initially asked him for $1 million for Superhumans. Buffett asked how much was needed to build the entire center. “$14 million.” “Okay. And what do you expect in return?” “Nothing. Build it.” Today, his support for Superhumans has reached $77 million, and the center has treated more than 1,700 patients. But his largest area of spending is neither agricultural machinery nor prosthetics. It is food: 642 million meals. And that is only part of it: * 344,000 windows replaced after Russian attacks; * 9 bridges, 4 power plants, 2,500 generators, and 18 DNA laboratories; * Much of Bucha rebuilt with his funding. “I already have more friends in Ukraine than I do at home,” he says. He celebrates birthdays in Ukraine, comes for Christmas, and even has a Ukrainian godson. Friends, this is truly a great man - someone who understands that he cannot take all his money with him when he leaves this world. I simply want to thank him and wish him well. Whatever else one may say, this is real help from a person who had no personal obligation to Ukraine. He simply chose to help. Source: translated from the original text by Oleh Bairak.