OfficeSpace: The documentary

While wandering around the Web to relieve stress, MeTheSheeple found a curious reference and followed it to "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Assessing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" (500k PDF), a work that matches "The Peter Principle" in clarity of thought, boldness of claim and humor between the lines.

It's tough to find someone who thinks they're a craptacular driver. Nearly every driver on the road things he's above average. This study tries to quantify that through a series of four tests. Simply put, the driving thing carries over in other areas. The one-quarter of the worst-performing people think they do a better job than two-thirds of the people.

One explanation advanced by the authors is that the incompetent are so incompetent they don't know how incompetent they are. Ignorant and talentless, they lack the means to compare with others the quality of work that they, themselves, cannot do.

This explains so much.