Thread by @daviddunning6

Reminded today is the 20th anniversary of the NYTimes article that started all the Dunning-Kruger hullaballoo. Apologies for the indulgence of this thread. #DunningKruger 1/n
nytimes.com/2000/01/18/hea…

Erica Goode @egoode of the NYT had called me up a month earlier, having read the title of Justin’s and my 1999 paper. Could she call me back after she read it? “Um, sure…” 2/n.
avaresearch.com/files/Unskille…

@egoode On Jan 18, 2000, I walked to a party store from our sabbatic house in Ann Arbor, knowing that the article would arrive on a “science section” Tuesday. And there it was. I phoned my secretary at Cornell at 9am to warn her that there might be one or two reporter calls. 3/n

@egoode “Do you want me to read you the list I already got?” was the reply. And thus began a maelstrom day for both Justin and me. That night, I phoned him and asked “So, do you want to do an interview?” and we shared a good long laugh 4/n

@egoode The media storm lasted about a month, roughly until the Doonesbury cartoon came out mentioning the research (oddly relevant today). Having the work mentioned in Dbury was neat, but the real thing I take away… 5/n
gocomics.com/doonesbury/200…

@egoode ...is my 78yo dad that day finally figured out email enough to send me a message about what he had just found in the Sunday paper. In all of this, that’s the highlight moment for me. 6/n

@egoode Since then, I have no idea why the meme has never died, but rather grown. The original 1999 paper Justin and I published yet once again hit another annual citation high on both ISI and Google Scholar in 2019. 7/n

@egoode But then there’s the design/engineering firm named after the eponymous effect based in Helsinki 8/n
dka.io

@egoode As well as the bar down in Melbourne, Australia. They get a 4.8/5 rating on Google, so they are screwing up (Hey, @siminevazire, someday, can you check out the pies; I hear they’re good). 9/n
dunningkrugerbar.com

@egoode @siminevazire And all those bands you can find on SoundCloud. But really, the epitome of the bizarreness is the opera piece… 10/n

@egoode @siminevazire I’m often asked what do I make of all this. I have no clue why this meme continues its escalating slow-burn through pop culture, although I do, of course, blame part of it on @errolmorris. 11/n
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the…

@egoode @siminevazire @errolmorris But I resonate with the attitude of Jack White of the White Stripes, whose riff from “Seven Nation Army” has become a global sports chant. You’ve heard the riff, even if you don’t know its origin. 12/n

@egoode @siminevazire @errolmorris He’s said he was quite pleased that a piece of music he created had entered the “pantheon” of folk music, embraced by the people. I guess I am similarly gratified that Justin’s and my work has similarly passed into folklore. 13/n

@egoode @siminevazire @errolmorris But forgive me this self-indulgent remembrance. I just recall well my younger, cleverer self smiling in that party store for a moment at that section F page 7 story in the NY Times (likely shorter than this thread). 14/n

@egoode @siminevazire @errolmorris Sitting here this morning in my Dunning-Kruger University T-shirt that someone (no connection to) is selling, I wish either Justin or my younger self had been clever enough to trademark the name… 15/n
amazon.com/Idiots-Unite-D…

@egoode @siminevazire @errolmorris Sorry, our incompetence. n/n