One evening this week, Kim brought up a topic that I spent about a minute confidently opining on until I finished my thought with, “actually, I have no idea what I’m talking about.” It felt good to both recognize and acknowledge that fact so promptly. How often am I guilty of confidently spewing nonsense without the benefit of realizing it? I’m reminded of Daniel Kahneman’s point on the subject: “In general, confidence is a very poor cue to accuracy. Because intuitions come to your mind with considerable confidence and there is no guarantee they’re right.”
I’ve been testing a new wearable tracker for a few weeks, the Amazon Halo While the early feedback from users is mixed, it’s certainly differentiated. One of its more unique features is a tone-of-voice analysis that samples my voice throughout the day to chart whether my tone of voice is positive/negative and high/low energy. The feedback certainly makes me more conscious of my voice and how others might perceive it. The tech doesn’t work super well today, probably because the microphone is far from my mouth on my wrist. But, I expect it’ll improve significantly in the coming years.
Let’s imagine a future where these two ideas intersect. What if a similar wrist-worn device could subtly vibrate when some overconfident mumbo-jumbo exits my mouth? I bet it’d be good for all of us if I retracted my worst ideas more quickly and frequently.