There are simply just some things that I should have known from the start.

I will admit I haven’t been great at either managing my words, nor people, nor time. Nor anything in general for that matter; but despite all that, I’ve always assured myself that with whatever kind of daunting obstacles that have tried to push me down to my knees (metaphorically AND literally), I will always manage to persevere, no matter how harsh or how demanding it becomes. I know what I haven’t been good at before as well as what I have been good at before, so it shouldn’t be hard to do, right? 

Recently, I’ve taken quite a good interest in the world of music and have been wanting to try composing some pieces via FL Studio, a music program, all by myself, expecting the final result to be magnificent in quality right in my first try at the program. After all, how hard can it really be? As the wonderfully diligent artist that I am, I’ve imagined how the structure of a music piece’s beats, bass, and melodies work, and have also been on YouTube for the reason of analyzing any detail in tutorials I find that I would need on how to bring all of it together. I thought for sure I would nail this whole “composing” business down, or at least have a decent track done down.

 It ended up being less than stellar. Much, much less stellar than I would have expected.

I realized that I had forgotten to take in account for not just navigating through the program and what instruments or other doohickeys and bells and whistles to use, but as in how to utilize them properly; placing the notes down in a dynamic way that does not grow too stale or stray too far for each passing measure. In other words, I thought too boldly of myself to think that I wouldn’t mess up. What happened was what I eventually learned to be a phenomenon known as the Dunning Kruger effect.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, the Dunning Kruger effect was an idea that came up by a Cornell professor of social psychology named David Dunning, along with Justin Kruger, his graduate student, that was apart of their paper ‘Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments’, published in 1999 in the wake of a report about a man that attempted to rob a bank with lemon juice on his face, in which said man firmly believed would conceal his face from the security cameras.

Dunning and Kruger’s paper, in essence, asserted that when people are incompetent in the things they wish to seek out, more often than not they happen to mess up in two separate ways; not only they are prone to making critical errors relating to incompetence, but said incompetence blinds the person from realizing in how they are lacking. This unfortunate but common condition is anosognosia, which is when a person with a disability is unaware of said disability. In a sense, it is rather ironic for a stupid person that is too stupid to understand how stupid it is that they are doing stupid things. Such ignorance and lack of understanding of the consequences of actions can only be fueled by selfishness and self-indulgence in affirming their self-righteousness, which can also serve as the same fuel that causes the blinded drive to their own demise.

On top of that are three different kinds of knowings of a person: the kind of knowing things, the kind of knowing of not knowing, and the kind of not knowing of what is not known, which are referred to as ‘unknown unknowns’. In essence, they are the ‘ultimate blind spots’, and for that reason we must listen to those who will affect us, for terrible outcomes may be a product of even good intentions.

One notable instance of the effect that we’ve all seen takes place in the SpongeBob Squarepants episode Artist Unknown, where the main character Squidward opens a public art class to which the only student that is willing to show up is Spongebob, somebody he very clearly dislikes. 

Throughout the episode, Squidward attempts to teach Spongebob various forms of art and more importantly, ‘The Rules of Art’, a book he follows very strictly and diligently, to which Spongebob outdoes Squidward in his skill of art in every possible way and much more. While Squidward is surprised and awed at his sheer talent,  the thought of the student being better than the master becomes very abhorrent to him; his envy brings him to manipulate the sponge, proclaiming that his art is a disgrace for the fact that he did not follow ‘The Rules of Art’.

Reminiscent of the play Othello by William Shakespeare, in which much like how the Iago, the deceptive antagonist and advisor to the general Othello, leads him on to believe that his wife is unfaithful and has no true love to him, Squidward (while being more direct), manipulates Spongebob that he has no real talent. This leaves the yellow sponge devastated that he has ‘failed’ Mr. Squidward, throwing himself out to the dumpster. Lucky for the art teacher, Spongebob left had left one of his ‘disgraceful’ art pieces, the Renaissance masterpiece David created out of a raw marble pillar, back in art class.

When the marble statue breaks however, Squidward runs to the dump to collect Spongebob, begging him to continue making the art the same way that he has before, but by then Spongebob has already taken in all of his teachings and fails to make anything of quality. When the sponge fails to chisel a marble statue, out of frustration, Squidward smashes a bunch of marble pillars together and leaves out the door, putting the responsibility of the mess he made on the janitor who was passing by. Unknown to Squidward, when he was smashing the marble pillars together, he accidentally created a much more beautiful masterpiece of David than before.

This situation provides a great dynamic showing both sides to the Dunning Kruger effect. For the majority of the episode, Squidward is constantly thinking highly of himself and his creative ability, even when his artwork itself is to be considered ‘less than stellar’ and even when his abilities are outdone by his student Spongebob, which shows his lack of understanding to recognize the fact that he is an untalented artist. 

However, the other side of the effect is shown near the end of the episode where Squidward finally acknowledges the limitations of his creative ability, and out of frustration is somehow able to make the most stunning masterpiece out of the marble pillars; a prime example of unknown unknowns that shows Squidward knows he does not know how to make great art, but doesn’t know that he doesn’t have to follow the book on ‘The Rules of Art’ to create fine works of art. Likewise, I must also realize my own shortcomings, and not assume something can be done great the first time just because it seems that easy. It’s not.

Looking back, I came to realize that I shouldn’t just expect to create any art piece of great quality just because I followed some tutorials on how somebody else learned to make it, but that I should just have the drive to make it out of passion, like how Squidward was only able to sculpt a masterpiece out of his enraging passion, and not because he followed a book of a set of rules made by a different artist that wasn’t him. 

And if it doesn’t turn out right away, that would be perfectly okay. As Godfrey “Doc” Daniels had done it, having called the number to a single phone booth in the middle of a desert every day for a month until someone picked up the call, never expecting anyone to answer on the other side, but it was his determination to call the number that paid off (even if it led to the phone booth being taken out due to its virality later on.) It is that mentality that I need if I want to achieve the things I want with great success.

If I want to do what I desire, I need to just do it.