Amazing Incompetence?

A ubiquitous observation: Anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails.

 "The selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. This eventually results in their being promoted to their highest level of competence and potentially then to a role in which they are not competent, referred to as their "level of incompetence". - The Peter Principle

José Ortega y Gasset who died in 1955, about 14 years before The Peter Principle was published, suggested:

"All public employees should be demoted to their immediately lower level, as they have been promoted until turning incompetent".

People with the least ability or highest levels of incompetence, are the most likely to overrate themselves, to the greatest extent viz. at levels mathematically beyond those of top flight experts and professionals.

Example, a study found 88% of American drivers rated themselves with above average driving skills.  Any decent driver who has driven extensively inside and outside of the US, knows better.

"People, whether they’re inept or highly skilled, are often caught in a bubble of inaccurate self-perception.  When they’re unskilled, they can’t see their own faults. That may be why people with a moderate amount of experience or expertise often have less confidence in their abilities. They know enough to know that there’s a lot they don’t know. 

Experts tend to be aware of just how knowledgeable they are. But they often make a different mistake: They assume that everyone else is knowledgeable too. When they’re exceptionally competent, they don’t perceive how unusual their abilities are.” - David Dunning

More to come in Part 2: Man's Got To Know His Limitations?