> Non-computer sciences and engineering comment sections are full of people speaking their guesses with authority.
Any idea why this is the case? I wonder, because I would expect most engineers to have had a university education that taught them respect for the complexity of things around us in the first place. The realisation alone of how little one really knows about one's own subject after several years of study should make one very cautious when it comes to subjects one has only heard about in passing. Or is it simply that an overwhelming majority of modest people simply remain silent, and that is why a few uninformed who rush to judgement stick out?
Technical people with some knowledge of a topic will often find themselves on the peak of mount stupid (see comic).
In other words, knowing just enough to feel like you know a lot, not knowing enough to realize how much you don't know.
And... well university education often doesn't succeed in teaching people to estimate their knowledge on a subject appropriately. "I don't know but I want to know more!" isn't a very common outcome when a topic comes up. I think it really has to do with people who spend a lot of time being the most knowledgable one on most topics around getting used to just having an answer whether or not it's correct.
There is a lot of overconfidence on core subjects also. Think of the rsync dropbox thing or any thread about kubernetes (I don't need it, so nobody does!)
True but frequently people claim that it is bad and nobody needs it. Whereas I would say Kubernetes is a bit like a bucket excavator, you probably don't need it and a shovel would do you just fine but that doesn't mean nobody needs bucket excavators.
Any idea why this is the case? I wonder, because I would expect most engineers to have had a university education that taught them respect for the complexity of things around us in the first place. The realisation alone of how little one really knows about one's own subject after several years of study should make one very cautious when it comes to subjects one has only heard about in passing. Or is it simply that an overwhelming majority of modest people simply remain silent, and that is why a few uninformed who rush to judgement stick out?