One must also consider the Dunning-Kruger affect which is a facet of physchology which states that one must have a degree of competence in order to know that which they are incompetent in.
I often see many engineers who consider themselves to be competent based on some kind of experience but in reality have no concept of how incompetent they are.
For instance, an example from my own experience where an engineer who has designed and observed concrete being poured for site features for many years may feel as though they are competent to understand concrete. This is despite the fact that their experience has never required them to consider details found only in concrete codes such as ACI and therefore their knowledge is very limited. Someone who has studied the ACI codes in greater detail would obviously understand to a greater amount of competence how concrete should be designed than this person.
Pittguy12, clueless people have no way of knowing how clueless they really are. Some interesting studies that point this out very clearly can be found in this link:
