I think about the Dunning-Kruger effect from time to time. Probably more often than most people do. Not the Dunning-Kruger effect that most people know (people who are bad at something often underestimate just how bad they are or think they are good at it*.), but the second effect that no one ever talks about.
That is the opposite effect of the first one–people who are really good at something underestimate how much better they are at the thing than other people or they think it’s no big deal. It’s for the same reason. They are using themselves as the reference because they have never been anyone else and can only go by what they can do themselves.
I was reminded of this by a thread in the weekend forum at Ask A Manager about cooking. They were talking about how caramelizing onions took way longer than a recipe says it does. People pointed out that it was the same for other times in cooking. Like the time it takes to make the whole dish in general. Someone joked that it took them that long just to gather the ingredients (twenty minutes).
This reminded me of when I got my Instapot (Instant Pot). My brother was pushing it hard, making it sound like the miracle cooking device. I read a bunch of recipes before deciding to do something I thought would be relatively simple–mashed potatoes. How hard could it be, right?
First of all, all the recipes were for four people. I am a single person, which means I don’t need that much of anything. And also that I will eat at least two servings at once.
When I make mashed potatoes without the Instapot, I cut up the four or so potatoes in cubes, throw them in boiling water, then I mash them up (I did buy a potato masher) , slowly pouring in water and vegan butter. And salt. That’s it! It’s really easy.
With the Instapot, it’s much more elaborate than that. I’m discounting mashing by a fork because it was before I got the masher. That’s not the fault of the Instapot. Remember. The thing that everyone emphasized with the Instapot was how it made everything so easy and simplified. What they don’t tell you is that the cooking time does not include: preheating time, taking pressure off, and any prep time. And in this case, the time they said it would take for the mashed potatoes to cook was not nearly enough.
When I mentioned it to my brother, he said that of course you had to preheat it. NOBODY SAYS THAT. The second thing I tried to make was a pork dish that had four ingredients. Pork, liquid smoke, and two other things Idon’t remmeber. And this was supposed to be super easy. Also for four people. And you have to brown the meat before cooking it. Which I could not get to happen in the Instapot. I did it in a skillet instead and burned my forearm. The meat was fine afterwards, but the total time took so long and it wasn’t that great. I didn’t use the Instapot again and eventually gave it to my brother.