There are many instances in today's society where one wonders, "What the hell is this person thinking?" This question can be asked regarding a person's clothing, their singing performance, or even their career choice. How can anyone be so wrong in their judgment or knowledge? The purpose of this article is to explain how people can be so oblivious to their incompetence. In 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger conducted studies to test individuals' competence and the effect of competence or incompetence on self-ratings. Dunning and Kruger stated: “…the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the same skills needed to assess competence in that domain – one's own or someone else's” (Kruger and Dunning, 1999 , p. 1121). Therefore, incompetent people lack metacognitive skills that are crucial for identifying their performance. In all areas of life, there are people who are unaware of the gap between what they think they can do and their actual abilities. Those who are less competent tend to overestimate their abilities while those who are more competent tend to underestimate their abilities. Studies show that low performers tend to overestimate their performance by around 30% (Hawes, 2010). Unskilled artists are said to have “illusory superiority,” which causes incompetents to overestimate their abilities. This leads unskilled performers to “wrongly rate their abilities well above average (Lightfoot, 2012). » An example of the Dunning-Kruger effect was presented by Joe Lightfoot, director and co-founder of Move. Eat. To treat. Lightfoot's example explains how most health professionals are not knowledgeable enough to provide lifestyle advice...... middle of paper ...... express critical comments due social norms established in our culture. Fay, Jordan, and Ehrlinger (2012) state, “After a friend's imperfect piano recital, we might keep our criticisms to ourselves and, instead, imply that we enjoyed the performance immensely” (p. 206). . A little criticism does a lot more good than a lot of empty praise. The Dunning-Kruger effect will continue to plague our society as long as we continue to follow social norms that encourage misleading comments. Conclusion There is obviously no one specific way to deal with everyone who is incompetent. The goal, however, should be to increase awareness of potential incompetence. We should not consider someone as incompetent because they are arrogant, nor as competent because they lack self-confidence. Instead, we should provide honest feedback to our peers while seeking the same honesty from others..