To know how good you are at something requires the same skills as it does to be good at that thing. Which means if you’re absolutely hopeless at something, you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you’re absolutely hopeless.
And this is a profound discovery. That most people who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing have absolutely no idea that they have no idea what they’re doing. It explains a great deal of life.
This wonderful quote - taken from a talk on creativity given at the world creative forum by John Cleese - like much of the comedy he has written over the years, is both deeply profound and darkly comical. I laughed out loud the first time I heard this. The truth of it and the horror of it’s implications ringing through my head.
