How Overconfidence Kills Creativity and Problem-Solving

I have a friend I met online.

He and I are both designers, but I’ve been in the field for longer.

He’s a nice guy, except when it comes to his designs.

If you say one negative thing about any of his work, he becomes extremely passive-aggressive.

For some reason, he thinks that he is always right and everyone else is wrong.

He’s way too overconfident.

The Trap of Overconfidence

A lot of people are overconfident.

I’m overconfident all the time. It’s a very common attribute.

Is there anything wrong with overconfidence by itself?

I don’t think so.

The trap forms when you are so overconfident you resist other people’s opinions entirely.

Now, I’m all for not listening to advice from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

The issue that most people have here is being honest.

Are you not listening because they don’t know what they’re talking about?

Or is it because you just don’t like them?

It’s really hard to be completely honest with yourself and realize that in 60% of the cases, the advice you are getting is actually pretty good.

Back to my example earlier.

This friend is so confident that he is right that whenever someone suggests changes, he goes berserk.

The problem is that, in reality, he’s not actually that good.

He can’t see that, and the result? He doesn’t improve.

Why Overconfidence Halts Creative Growth

If you are able to see that you are trash at a subject, you will believe that there is room for improvement.

The trick here is that learning is never completed.

If you believe you can’t learn anymore, guess what’s going to happen?

You won’t learn anymore.

Why? You will block out all the suggestions and advice from people who know what they’re doing.

This is a common phenomenon in art.

Beginners will think within the first month that they have it all figured out, and when someone gives them advice, they lose it.

If you can remain humble and realize that you will never be the best and there will always be someone to teach you more, you will become exponentially better at your craft.

My friend will most likely be stuck in beginners hell for a long time, if not forever.

All because he refuses to listen to advice.

That sounds like a pretty crummy fate to me.

How to Avoid Overconfidence

Humility is a hard virtue.

Whenever you achieve something, pride comes along and tries to push you up.

Humility is something that needs to be reset every day.

You need to start from a baseline constantly or you will be swallowed by incremental pride.

Overconfidence is a sub-category of pride.

Stay humble, and you won’t become overconfident.

It’s a constant practice of reminding yourself that you aren’t really that great in reality.

But if stopped, it can lead to creative stagnation and can kill your progress.

This may sound like a lost cause, but it’s not as bad as it looks.

Remind yourself regularly, and you’ll be fine.

TL;DR: Stay humble.

Thanks for reading.

-Luke