Why Your Post Isn't Getting Any Love: The Dunning-Kruger Effect #smallpost
I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for you, dear Reader, but just one of the questions we need to be asking ourselves when our work product doesn't get the attention we believe it deserves is: Are we suffering from The Dunning-Kruger effect? For those who aren't familiar, here's the description contained within the "List of Cognitive Biases" Wikipedia page: The tendency for unskilled individuals to overestimate their own ability and the tendency for experts to underestimate their own ability.
Maybe you're underestimating your ability. Maybe you're overestimating your ability. You're probably not estimating it perfectly. One of the ways I try to get around the DKE is to ask myself, "What am I telling the audience that they didn't already know?" Every bit of my information which is already known to them is a waste of their time. I can't expect to gain an audience by wasting their time. Of course, using common knowledge to bridge a gap toward a new concept may be necessary, but this is essentially the only justification. This, unfortunately, is not fool proof. I could, for example, be far too incompetent to even conceive I might actually be incompetent. For that determination ... I look to the vote count.
Update: @maximkichev made a good point in the comments. He said, "I'm a fool! And it's cool!" I think that's another good way to at least ameliorate the DKE. The more open you are to the idea that you might be out of your depth, the more likely you are to realize it when you are. Then, of course, you can do more research, refine your analysis, ... make your stuff better.
Good stuff. Also important to note that communication of ideas is actually made of two parts: The ideas and the communication. Having a great idea is only half of the formula. Gotta be able to make them accessible and digestible as well.
Good point.
I am trying to help out people who have good ideas in their posts, but haven't been able to get them noticed. You can check out my post: https://steemit.com/post/@timcliff/a-second-look-group-train-post-to-get-your-post-in-front-of-more-people
I am just about clever enough, to know how dumb I am... :-)
CG
HAHA hopefully! You're awesome :)
I think it is awesome that a person actually came up with a Dunning-Kruger effect themed post! I have been fascinated it with the Dunning-Kruger effect since I first read about it a few years ago. It explains a lot. Thanks for spreading the knowledge.
This helped open my mind a little bit. My posts haven't been going anywhere lately and I think it may be because I'm overestimating the quality of the content... Thank you.
No worries man, I've been there. If you ever want some help feel free to reach out to me on slack. Honestly (since you're commenting on this post I'm going to assume you won't find advice condescending) after a quick look at your blog I can tell you that, in my opinion, your titles need work. That's a good thing! Titles are easy PEAS to fix :) Heuristic #1: What would Donald Trump name this post? Heuristic #2: Is there a precedent or superlative in the title? What focusing on precedents and superlative force you to do is focus on the original information within your post. If you can't find a legitimate precedent or superlative to describe your work, you might want to go back and refine the content a bit more. I think a good title may very well be responsible for as much as half of the value of a post. I think people probably upvote content with good titles because they assume it will get lots of eye balls which will lead to more upvotes giving them curation rewards. I think if they recognize the content creator and believe them to be a consistently quality producer they are even more likely to upvote quickly. But look, traditional media has known the importance of titles forever. My final heuristic is, "Is this clickbait?" Obviously I want the answer to be "No." But really, you do want your titles to be as sensational as possible without being clickbait. That's definitely a tough one to gauge. For that I look to the flags. Personally I don't want ANY flags. One tops. If people flag my post I'm going to assume that I somehow mislead them and correct any error which might have done that. Thanks for the great comment!
I appreciate any advice coming from anyone. I'll try produce more catchy titles from now. I really thought I already was. Guess I was clueless. I'll definitely jot this down in the Steemit memory bank. Also, I don't think I have a problem with flags, I think the most I've had was 3 for a post where I swore a lot and was drunk. But meh. Anyways, thank you again. Hopefully my next Trump-esque titles help me in the future.
Not getting any flags isn't necessarily a good thing. You might not be pushing your titles far enough. Not that the goal is to get flagged. You're not clueless, you're just struggling like we all are. Just do your best, learn from your mistakes, and try to find something you enjoy doing. BTW you inspired my latest post. Gave you a shout out: https://steemit.com/smallpost/@andrarchy/how-to-create-a-compelling-title-smallpost
Thank you friend.
Steemit has become a place to express myself in writing creative or other. This platform offers a perfect way to practice while receiving feedback on the quality of my writing (I know that there is a drastic amount of room for improvement). Regardless of the love my posts receive, it is for improvement of my own skills than to hit a bench mark set by others.
Perfect
Second time I have come across the 'your post that you loved isn't getting any love because it isn't good' sentiment in less than 24 hours. I think you're on to something.
It certainly feels better to blame the bots, or the whales, or the time of day, or the day of week, but I for one am just going to assume that if I write something that doesn't get the attention I thought it would it is because of the writing.
I agree. I figure that all of that stuff kind of cancels out. I'm certainly not going to rule out the possibility that I've been very, very lucky. I mean the story of my life is being very lucky. But I'm just promoting my work like anyone would on any social platform and leaving it at that. All of that computer science stuff on the backend is far beyond me and understanding it would redirect bandwidth away from what I believe to be my real advantage: creating good content. Thanks so much for the constructive post. Feel free to reach out to me on slack. I don't just commit my upvotes blindly, but if you send me something good, or you're willing to listen to my advice about how to make it better, you'll get my upvote. And to be honest, so far anyone who has had the presence of mind to contact me has always wound up creating content that deserved my upvote. At most I help them with the title :)
I finally know the name for this! Thank you.
Good advice you got out there @andrarchy. Im pretty sure Im one of those guys who longed for upvotes but always fail. Not mention that I only made few posts which make me look like a fool. Really admire what you said about what kind of post a person should be posting. I have now the idea and my next problem is I'm not a good writer. Hope I can come up with a good reintroducemyself in the next few days.
If it makes you feel any better, I am only pretending that I don't feel like a fool when I create my posts. I do that because I know nobody wants to read anything from someone who clearly doesn't seem to have confidence in themselves. But it's an act I do for the audience. We're all fools really. Feel free to reach out to me on slack if you need any help. Write about what you nerd-out about. Write about what you understand better than most people on this platform, and always be honest, sincere, and transparent. If you follow those rules, you can always count on my upvote :)
Thanks @andrarchy you're the first person that give such advise to me and I really appreciate it. By the way, how can I find you in slack?
By the way, I have question about converting a steem dollar to USD. What are the steps to take to withdraw steem dollar to real USD? What platforms should we use?
the vulnerability and authenticity that consistently comes through with your material is a real strong character point - which definitely contributes to the value of your posts, and serves as an excellent leading example.
Yes, you have touched a very difficult question ! I feel like a fool , and it's cool !
Yeah that's a good point. I think being at peace with the idea that you're a fool (by which I mean me) is another good strategy for ameliorating the DKE. I'm gonna add it to the post!
I think there might be some collective lessons on the fool archetype in effect these past few months - especially with Trump at the forefront as US president...
How about a new post titled "Why your comment isn't getting any love: the dunning kruger effect" :P