"The confidence of amateurs is the envy of professionals"

[nancylebov]

I get the intention of "The confidence of amateurs is the envy of professionals"-- that professionals wish they could be as certain as people who don't know much of anything about their subject-- but I get distracted by the idea that the confidence of amateurs is equivalent to the envy of professionals, which makes no sense.

Besides, I'm not sure that professionals really envy amateurs' certainty about the professionals' field. People tend to like the knowledge they've got. However, this usually doesn't stop them from making amateur generalizations about things they're not familiar with.

Would "The confidence of amateurs is the despair of professionals" be better?

Comments

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I don't think that professionals envy the amateurs' opinions, as an object on its own... I didn't interpret the line that way myself.

My interpretation of the statement was that professionals wish they could be as certain in their professional judgements as amateurs, but they know too much about the field to be that certain. If the pros could know as much as they do and be as confident in their judgements are amateurs are, I think they'd sleep better at night.

Your interpretation is a rephrasing of the old, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread," which is a rather different casting of a related sentiment.

-- Steve thinks the original phrase is a wishing away of "imposter syndrome", rather than a lament over the Dunning-Kruger Effect.