Psychology: The Science of Suck.

So, I read something interesting today, and I decided to share it with all of you! I was surfing around You Tube, as I do, and I came across someone talking about something called the 'Dunning-Kruger' effect.

You can click the link if you want, but I'll break it down for you here. Basically, what this is saying is that those who are incompetent tend to grossly overestimate their own level of skill. The study found that, curiously, you require some level of expertise in an area to accurately self assess your ability. With minimal tutoring, these ignorant people were much better at estimating their own lack of skill, even though their ability did not noticeably improve.

In short, they needed to be taught why they sucked.

Now, why should any of us care about this? And I mean besides the fact that most of us see it on a daily basis, being users of the internet. Well, look at the front page of the site. You can see hundreds of reasons as to why we should care. Are the 'authors' (I use the term loosely) out there really beyond help? The ones that produce works filled with typos, poor structure and lousy story telling? No. The only person who is beyond help is the one who refuses the chance to grow, but most people aren't like that.

Pointing out the flaws in a bad story in a polite but stern way won't make someone into an expert writer, but it might just make them realize that their writing is bad. That, in itself, is the first real battle of the long war. One cannot fix what they don't know is wrong.

If you see a bad story, leave a comment. Say why. Instruct the author, TEACH them. Everybody who has ever commented on one of my stories saying "I could never make something like this," well, two things.

One: You're wrong, so stop shitting on yourself.
Two: Acknowledging your own weakness as a writer means you already posses enough skill to perceive it. Now that you see your flaws, correct them and grow.

Also, I just turned thirty. Old man alert.

-Lumino