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In the car a couple of months back, my partner and I discussed a particularly gullible friend of mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect,\u201d I told him knowledgeably. \u201cPeople generally believe they are smarter and more capable than they really are.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I like being well-read, and well-informed, and feeling slightly superior to everyone else.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>iStock<\/cite><\/p>\n We sailed through the Cross City Tunnel and I silently congratulated myself. I like knowing about things like Dunning-Kruger, and logical fallacies, and Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s cat. I like being well-read, and well-informed, and feeling slightly superior to everyone else.<\/p>\n But my partner looked distracted. \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t your e-tag beep?\u201d he asked. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard it beep.\u201d<\/p>\n I was still thinking about how gloriously intelligent I was. \u201cOh, it doesn\u2019t beep,\u201d I said breezily. \u201cI don\u2019t know why. But it works. I get charged for the toll. So, it\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked sceptical, which irritated me slightly. I\u2019m a smart girl. And I know my car.<\/p>\n Later that day, I did the Wordle. After five turns, I had uncovered three of the five letters.<\/p>\n \u201cC-A-something-L-something,\u201d I muttered. I stared at the screen. There was no word that fitted. \u201cCasle?\u201d I wondered. \u201cCaoly? Canlo?\u201d It was clearly an abstruse and esoteric kind of word. The Wordle is becoming insuperable, I thought. I\u2019m a writer, for goodness sake! My vocabulary is pretty wide. I know words like \u201cabstruse\u201d and \u201cesoteric\u201d and \u201cinsuperable\u201d. If I couldn\u2019t figure out the word, nobody could.<\/p>\n I gave up. The word was CAULK. I had never even heard of it. What in god\u2019s name was CAULK?<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,\u201d said Stephen Hawking, \u201cbut the illusion of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n Illustration by John Shakespeare<\/span>Credit: <\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n But this doesn\u2019t apply to me. I know what I know \u2013 literature, philosophy, psychology, linguistics \u2013 but I also know what I don\u2019t know. I cannot comprehend atoms, or astronomy, or blockchain. I have always been terrible at directions and geography. I cannot locate Bolivia or Kyrgyzstan on a map. I don\u2019t even know how to spell<\/i> Kyrgyzstan. I had to look it up.<\/p>\n Except, I couldn\u2019t look it up. After vacuuming my floors, I\u2019d returned to my computer to find that my home Wi-Fi had gone down. I spent over an hour on the phone to a Telstra rep, trying to sort it all out. He ran tests, he did diagnostics, and he couldn\u2019t get a signal.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure the router is plugged in?\u201d he asked me, and I rolled my eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, it\u2019s plugged in.\u201d I could see the power plug in the socket. \u201cThis happens all the time,\u201d I told him testily. \u201cThe internet connection in my area is terrible. You need to send someone out to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n The rep booked me a service call. I thanked him wearily and hung up. Later that night, the internet magically turned back on.<\/p>\n \u201cOh my god!\u201d I cried to my daughter. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it! The Wi-Fi is working!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHuh?\u201d She glanced over from her laptop. \u201cI plugged the cord back in the router. Someone must have knocked it out.\u201d<\/p>\n I cancelled the Telstra man.<\/p>\n Last week, after several more silent toll roads, my partner searched for my e-tag. \u201cIt isn\u2019t in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need to call up Service NSW and order another.\u201d<\/p>\n A gentle reminder in the Cross City Tunnel.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Tamara Voninski<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in there somewhere!\u201d I told him confidently. \u201cI get charged every month for tolls, so it\u2019s obviously working!\u201d<\/p>\n He took a deep breath. \u201cYou know they scan number plates, right? You\u2019ll still be charged for tolls, but you\u2019ll be charged an extra fee for not having a tag.\u201d<\/p>\n I did not know that. How could I not know that?<\/p>\n I rang Service NSW. Turns out, I did not have a registered e-tag. I have not had a registered e-tag for as long as their records stretched back. I have been charged an extra 50 cents for every toll road I have used (and I do like a toll road) for at least the past 18 months.<\/p>\n The verdict was in. I had finally been unmasked. For all my writing, for all my education, for all my critical thinking, I am actually pretty stupid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,\u201d wrote Shakespeare.<\/p>\n He\u2019s right, I thought. How much better would the world be if we could all appreciate our own stupidities? It is a life-changing revelation. I may indeed be a fool, but for the first time in my life, I might actually be truly wise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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