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by jszymborski 767 days ago
I personally write "IANAL", not to reduce my personal legal liability, but rather to give a heads up to those reading that I am not an expert, that I am likely wrong, and that you likely shouldn't listen to me.
2 comments

I feel there's a common thread that maybe should be some kind of internet law that people who make a point of noting they are not experts, are more often correct than people who confidently write as though they are.

You see this particularly with crypto, where "I am not a crypto expert" is usually accompanied by a more factual statement than one from the self proclaimed expert elsewhere in the thread.

In addition to "humility implies self-awareness", I'd like to point out a parallel thread of "disclosure implies honesty and diligence."
You can look it up and the Dunning Kruger effect is probably not real.
It's less that it's not real, but rather that the common interpretation of it is utterly false.
When I was younger there was a short period I thought it meant that a person was just really anal about details.