We're chatting about The Imposter Syndrome! And then that bleeds over naturally to the Dunning Kruger effect… Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome in your comicing or professional life? I think it's one of those things that we all have at one time or another. It's the feeling of "I don't belong", "people are relying on me and I really don't know what I'm doing", "they're going to find out I've been a fraud all along!". When it comes to comics in my case it usually happens after I've just posted a new page, I go from feeling like being at the top of the world to a total fraud and a hack who's not worthy to have their comics seen.

The way this bleeds into the Dunning Kruger effect is the healthier side of the imposer syndrome… when you're not feeling like a fraud but rather you're aware that you don't know it all - you know your stuff is ok, it could be better, and that's fine. What is Dunning Kruger effect? It's and informal behaviour pattern that we all tend to gravitate towards: When you don't know anything at all about a subject you're aware of that lack of knowledge, but when you know a tiny bit about the subject you overestimate your knowledge and think you know all there is to know, however when you actually become an expert on the subject then you think that you know less about it than you do because you know how much more there IS to know. Also, there's a balance in the middle where you know exactly how much you know.

People wrongly think that only idiots are subject to Dunning Kruger, but the truth is that its universal because we're ALL experts at a few things and novices at a billion other things: from artists, to astronomers, to janitors, to footballers, to street-sweepers. Examples of highly qualified people in particular fields saying moronic things about other fields are legion: two time Nobel Prize winner Dr Linus Pauling came up with the stupid idea that vitamin C cures everything and he's the reason why it's STILL touted as being at all good for colds; theoretical Physicist Avi Loeb promotes the idiotic idea that various extra-solar comets are alien spaceships; former doctor, Andrew Wakefield famously promotes crazed anti-vax conspiracy theories…

Actual experts in things are experts for a reason. It's important to have an idea of what you don't know about something, then you won't get hit with imposter syndrome. Achieve that balance point on the Dunning Kruger graph and actually know what you're doing.

This week our best-off from Gunwallace is: Simply Sarah - It has lovely female vocals and it's a very nice track. Chosen by Tantz Aerine because Simply Sarah is about self realisation! Originally from Quackcast 178, 4th of August 2014

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic: In the Woodland - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/may/19/featured-comic-in-the-woodland/

Featured music: Simply Sarah - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/simply_sarah/ - by Skyangel, rated E.

Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

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