In countries like Iran, unfortunately, the phenomenon of “Shofer effect” has become more dangerous than the enemy, drought and lies.
Most Iranians have heard the famous prayer attributed to Cyrus, the king of ancient Iran. with the theme that;
“God! Protect the land of Iran and its people from the enemy, drought and lies.”
Economic experts believe that in the current situation, what threatens Iran more than the enemy or drought or lies is the “Shofer effect”!
But what is the effect of Shofer?
After receiving the Nobel Prize in 1918, Max Planck toured Germany and spoke about quantum mechanics in various cities. Because he presents exactly one content every time, his driver feels that he has learned all the content and one day he says to Mr. Plank: Don’t you get tired of repeating these words? I can now provide this content for you. Do you want me to give a speech at the next destination, which is Munich, and you want to wear my clothes and sit in the meeting? It creates variety for both of us. Plank also accepts!
Shofer talks about quantum mechanics very well in the session and the listeners have a lot of fun. At the end of the session, the physicist stands up and asks a question. The chauffeur, who does not know the answer to the question, finally says calmly: “I am surprised that in an advanced city like Munich, they ask such simple questions that even my chauffeur can answer!” Dear driver, please answer his question!
Today, in management science, this work is called “Shofer effect”. This effect is caused by an illusion of knowledge that omniscient people suffer from. Knowledge is like an iceberg, a small part of which can be seen and most of it cannot be seen. Superficial people see only the visible part of knowledge and think that they have received the whole knowledge, when it is only an illusion of knowledge. Not self-knowledge.
Illusion of knowledge means thinking we know something when we are wrong. It means either we don’t know or we know wrongly and incompletely, and the main cause of the illusion of knowing or the illusion of knowledge is our incomplete idea about the whole subject and then comparing our own knowledge with the same idea.
Now, if the same meeting becomes a permanent routine, the chauffeurs will continue to work in the position of scientists and the scientists will also continue to work in the position of chauffeurs! And sorry, how familiar this story is in the social context! The country is in the hands of delusional managers who have the illusion of knowing all topics and have kept experts at home.
Socrates said I am the wisest person! Because I am the only one who knows that I don’t know, while others are still not aware of their ignorance.
This Socratic ignorance, which Nicholas Kozai later called “cultured ignorance”, is exactly what we need for thinking and reading books. Because the first step in the quest for knowledge is to overcome the illusion of knowledge.
This post is written by MalekAhm