Mort-Hog
If moral relativism is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
Posts: 4,192
See, I have more of an issue with people that think they're usually wrong but are usually right. People that have a reasonable view of their ability can be set a task and be expected to complete it. If that ability is high, then I'd expect their view of that ability to be high. Someone that underestimates their own ability may seem humble and noble, but if they perceive themselves unable to complete a problem then they probably won't (even if, when pushed, they probably can). Those people are useless to me.
I'd much rather put up with competent arrogance than incompetent humility.
There are certain things that I am very good at (such as methods of diagonalising Hamiltonians), and I know that I am very good at them. Any extraneous effort to pretend otherwise is irrational and unproductive. It also sets a personal standard for how good I expect myself to be at other things that I'm less good at (such as tensor calculus). If I had unreasonably low expectations of myself, I'd look at tensor calculus and think 'oh that's far too difficult for me!' and not even attempt it and get nowhere in life.
Even after 4 years of studying undergraduate physics, there were still many of my friends that winced at the sight of mathematics. Even though we've had four ****ing years of mathematics, there were still people that had to check their simple rearrangement of equations. That infuriates me.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. " - Bertrand Russell
The Triumph of Stupidity in Mortals and Others 1931-1935