Dunning Krueger-
Cognitive bias. A psychological phenomenon in which people with low skill level believe themselves to posses more skill than they do and highly skilled people often underestimate themselves or more accurately overestimate those you would compare them to.
To break it down you have to have a certain level of knowledge to even know how much skill you lack.
There is a sort of inverse relationship, an arc from how much knowledge or skill one has and how much you think you have.
Competition can be good about showing you where you are performing relative to others in some measurable way. Lots of folks are intimidated by competition because it can be hard on the ego when they don’t perform as well as they thought they should have.
One thing we used to preach in SWAT was “leave the ego at the door.” You usually heard this just prior to a debrief. That’s where we would review the day’s activity and critique it. Now this is a real challenge for highly motivated Type-A people that often fill that role but ability to accept critical review & adjust is necessary for a professional. See ego interferes with growth when it shuts out constructive criticism.
Something I saw iin competition shooting a lot was the really elite shooters were often humble & helpful (especially towards shy beginners). Almost as if they welcome the challenge of fresh competition & aren’t bothered by someone else performing well.
The point I’m driving at here is that everyone’s path has to start somewhere. Once you start walking the path the world begins to open up and get bigger and more fulfilling as you move along it.
Signed; NS