Dunning-Kruger. Don't Be This Person.

This is the phenomenon of learning just enough to feel like an expert, while having no idea what you still don’t know.

Spend 20 minutes with Claude and suddenly you’re a designer. A communications strategist. A lawyer!

You went from zero to something, and something feels enormous when zero was all you had.

But here’s what actually happened. You skipped to where today’s professionals were after their first year.

Honestly, that’s impressive. AI is remarkable.

But know you’re still years from where they are now.

I spent years learning to code before AI existed. When I use AI now, I know what questions to ask. I can spot when the output is wrong. I know what I don’t know, so I know where to look.

But I’ve also used Claude to write marketing copy I couldn’t write before. And it feels like competence. It isn’t. I don’t know enough to know what’s missing, what’s off, or what a real professional would never let through.

That’s the difference. Knowing what you don’t know is a skill. It takes years to develop. AI didn’t give you that.

So if someone who does this for a living isn’t jumping at your suggestions, they’re not being defensive. They’re looking at your output and seeing exactly what’s wrong with it. They’re just too gracious (and exhausted) to walk you through it.

I've been on both sides of this.

Keep going with AI. Stay curious. But stay humble about what a few hours actually bought you.

The gap is still there. You just can’t see it yet.