The failure mode for the arrogant is different from the failure mode of the humble. These are deep personality traits, that are hard to change; I think the better idea is to manage the drawbacks of whatever you have (and to be aware of it—since most people are arrogant and humble in different situations, we might not be self aware as to what is the dominant trait).
It’s certainly useful to be arrogant with respect to action, for many reasons. It’s often useful to be humble with respect to knowledge.
But don’t confuse epistemic humility with social humility. I think I am much better at predicting most technological innovations than almost everyone. Why? Because I know that the uncertainties in any prediction are much higher than any predictors seem to admit, and they positively reek of overconfidence, even when they disagree with almost all other predictors. So my attitude seems to be an epistemic humility that causes a social arrogance.
The failure mode for the arrogant is different from the failure mode of the humble. These are deep personality traits, that are hard to change; I think the better idea is to manage the drawbacks of whatever you have (and to be aware of it—since most people are arrogant and humble in different situations, we might not be self aware as to what is the dominant trait).
It’s certainly useful to be arrogant with respect to action, for many reasons. It’s often useful to be humble with respect to knowledge.
But don’t confuse epistemic humility with social humility. I think I am much better at predicting most technological innovations than almost everyone. Why? Because I know that the uncertainties in any prediction are much higher than any predictors seem to admit, and they positively reek of overconfidence, even when they disagree with almost all other predictors. So my attitude seems to be an epistemic humility that causes a social arrogance.