As observed by Touchstone, the court jester from As You Like It:

‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’

Nobody Knew: simple observation can reveal someone who often knows very little about a topic but speaks as though highly competent.

For Example:

• “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.“
•  “I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.“
• “I know more about drones than anybody.“
• “I know a lot about wind. I know more about wind than you do.”

This artificial expert syndrome has a name: Dunning-Kruger effect. It is a cognitive bias where people with limited knowledge or competence in a specific area greatly overestimate their own skills. Discovered by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, it happens because unskilled individuals lack the very expertise needed to recognize their own mistakes.

Overestimating competence: People who know very little about a topic mistakenly believe they are highly competent. Because they do not know what they do not know, they suffer from an illusion of superiority. Complicated, global issues get reduced to simple choices, missing the subtilty and real difficulty of a situation:

After failing to pass a replacement to the Affordable Care Act in 2017 we heard:  “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.“

A trade war was initiated in 2018 (by tweet) and we heard: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win.“

A person afflicted with this syndrome should not be allowed to declare war, send the army against the citizens, treat immigrants like an enemy invasion, or spend tax dollars like it’s his money.