But in fact, it is intellectual modesty - the recognition of our incompetence in any issue - that allows us to learn and develop more effectively. If you are not lying to yourself and others that you supposedly know everything and your opinion is the only correct one, if you allow yourself to look at things more broadly, change your point of view depending on the new learned facts, admit that you are wrong and gaps in any area of knowledge - then you have a gap for development and improvement. Otherwise, you are deliberately depriving yourself of the opportunity to expand your knowledge.
As scientists have found, intellectual modesty directly affects academic success. Students and schoolchildren who have developed this quality, more often than others, double-check their knowledge and the quality of mastering the material, and therefore have a higher result in the end.
Why has the issue of intellectual modesty become relevant? The availability of the Internet is increasing every day - and with it the confidence in the knowledge that it supposedly gives grows. At any moment you can get a lot of the information you need by simply googling. You don’t need to keep it in your head, memorize it, and many don’t even bother to double-check it - and consume it exactly in the form in which the search engine issued it. But in the end, the value of this knowledge is very low - and it lingers in memory at best in fragments. But at the same time they create a sense of omniscience in a person.
Intellectual self-confidence can manifest itself as the negative side of excessive self-confidence - egocentrism. It obscures the eyes and mind with the feeling that the knowledge and experience you have are the only possible, important and correct. This helps to build a certain social status based on their alleged expertise, and look better in their own eyes. However, there is no real benefit from this if you do not know how to question and revise the knowledge gained.
At the same time, intellectual humility is the key to a fulfilled life, openness, and new experiences. By the way, Google itself admits that potential candidates for positions are selected, among other things, for their intellectual modesty, weeding out “sofa experts”.You will be interested to know 4 myths about confident women.
