Chapter 4

Main Idea:

This chapter mainly focuses on how we overestimate what we know when it comes to predictions by thinking we know more than we actually do. This type of illusion is called: the illusion of knowledge. Because of our extensive experience and familiarity with ordinary machines and tools, we often think we have a deep understanding of how they work. An interesting thing that happens in this chapter is the use of small activities to see how we are influenced by the illusion of knowledge. The reader was asked to think about a list of 7 objects and judge their knowledge of those objects on a scale of 1-7. After picking the object with the highest rating that the reader feels they best understand, they try to explain how it works. They would try to generate a detailed step-by-step description of how it works, and explain why it works. If the reader wasn't sure how two steps are casually connected, they've uncovered a gap in their knowledge. Something interesting that I learned, is that for most of us, our depth of understanding is sufficiently shallow that we may exhaust our knowledge after just the first question when asked about how something as simple as a zipper works.We know that there is an answer, and we feel that we know it, but until asked to produce it we seem absolutely unaware of the shortcomings of our own knowledge. 

Quotes:

I really liked the part when the authors engaged the readers with activities to further demonstrate and prove how the illusion of knowledge seems to perceive us. A very interesting quote I found in this chapter regarding our understanding and knowledge of simple every day things, "You mistake your knowledge of  what happens for an understanding of why it happens, and you mistake your feelings of familiarity for genuine knowledge." (pg. 122) This quote is very significant to me because it summarizes the main idea of the chapter in just a vivid and and eye-opening way, that it made me sort of reflect on items and everyday visuals that I think I know how they work and why they work, when I actually don't actually understand the mechanism and the work behind each item.

Principles:

Once again, this chapter uses the elements of short stories and activities for the reader to further enhance the theory of the presented illusion in this section of the book. These are such vital elements when it comes to presenting a theory that isn't easily explainable with just words and facts. The reader gets a deeper understanding of how the theory actually works with regards to the human anatomy and the functions of the brain. This chapter relates back to the topic of how our intuitions deceive us because people who know the limits of their knowledge say things like" there is a 75% chance of rain", while people who don't know their limits express improper certainty. Yet those with the best understanding of their field can fall prey to the illusion of knowledge.