RE: Dunning-Kruger effect / Remove the cause and the effect will cease. / Self examination is the key!
I remember you mentioning this on a post of mine a couple of days ago. It's nice to see the concept fleshed out into fuller article. I had meant to look it up, but got sidetracked...
I think another way of interpreting this concept, or maybe adding another layer to it - depending on your stand point - would to equate this mindset to one of a righteous ego.
The assertion that one is vastly more intelligent than the rest of the populace, is surely born of an ego centric perspective, and fits the bill of righteousness quite well, I feel.
On the solutions, and how to reconcile this distortion of the mind, it's not so easily solved, as it requires self-inquiry to do so. And, given the underlying problem here is one of unawareness, it's not likely to happen without an external event or trigger.
I think exposure to one's infallibility with regards to over-estimating their intelligence is what it is really takes in my opinion. A short sharp shock to the ego that humbles the person in question into re-examining their mental acuity and cognitive abilities.
I don't think righteous and ego work as a phrase. In a very real sense it is a oxymoron. Righteous means right ego is usually associated with wrong. In the religious sense it means Right Spiritually. Ego means wrong Spiritually. However I get what you mean. That a person who thinks there are people of lesser ability then themselves is very ego centered. What I have notices is that the fact that some people are hiding from the truth so much that it effects there cognition is being miss comprehended as a state in fact that they are of lower ability. Just in thinking that there are people of lower ability we affect our own cognition. We in effect are deciding that there are limits to our own cognitive ability and indeed there must be if there are limits for someone else.
It is only when you realize that really you get what you put into something, that you realize your cognition is no different then the muscles in your body. That the neural plasticity of the brain at any time can and does constantly rewire your brain means that in truth you get what you put into it.
Just to clarify my point on righteousness, of course, it can be a virtue, but when taken too far into extremes, can become zealotry. It isn't the righteousness of itself I was referencing, but an extreme sense of it.
And you're right, there are no short cuts, the brain is in fact a muscle. A fact which not a lot of people are privy to, and can be trained just as much as the rest of our physical body, like you say.
Totally agree that zealotry isn't a good thing.