Why new keepers are prone to becoming "instant experts" and what we can do to better support new herpers through this stage.

You've likely seen it before. That guy or gal that is into snakes and seemingly unknowingly posts something on the subject on social media that is.. well, not correct. Dangerous even. 

So you innocently offer them (unsolicited) advice, and oh boy! find out they are an "expert". They insist they know better than you, have been keeping longer than you, may even tout some credentials, and yeah.. you meant well, but it turns into a good ole social media keyboard war. Oh my!

Why does this happen?

It's called the dunning kruger effect, and It is most definitely not limited to just the reptile community- in fact it occurs in every field of expertise. Its so common to human behavior that there's been numerous scientific studies on the matter. Turns out human beings follow a fairly consistent pattern in regards to how their confidence changes as their knowledge in a field progresses. 

A popular shorthand to explain the first stage of the dunning kruger effect is, "sometimes people don't know enough to be aware that they don't know enough to speak on the matter."

​Note this chart does not say time spent in the field, it says knowledge. A person can spend a lot of time in a field and still know relatively little if they were less motivated to learn, whereas another person that had strong motivation to learn everything they can, could easily attain more knowledge in less time. 

So your instant expert is in that "I know everything" stage on the chart.

It's nothing against you personally, they'll have this reaction with anyone because they just don't know better yet.

Eventually as people who have more knowledge correct them or they gather more knowledge for themselves, they will start to realize that there is more to it than they thought. So they'll try to improve and, like we all do, they'll make a mistake. For example, they might accidentally kill a snake. That's when they enter the "valley of despair"

this is where we lose our babyherpers folks. It is very important that we are gentle with them at this stage. It is not cool to shame a babyherper that is reaching out to the community during their despair stage- and interestingly enough, those that do so are typically in their own "peak of mt stupid" stage. 

The valley of despair is bad but its actually a good thing if they make it through it. It is very motivating. They're going to want to avoid that pain, and that's what puts them on the upward slope. They start to gain confidence again, but now its as they learn. 

Those that truly arrive at expert level, understand that learning is not a destination you arrive at, but a process that never ends. You start to look back and realize Its messy, its complicated, and there's a lot more paths to get there than the one you took.

Eventually, when you've consumed all of the commonly available knowledge, you realize that the only way to go any further is through collaboration with others, so you share and receive in return. You start to see yourself in those who are just beginning their journey, and can you sympathize instead of being offended. 

A common expression for this stage is, "Competition happens at the bottom, collaboration happens at the top".

So your social media warrior just hasn't reached that point where collaboration becomes necessary in order to grow any further, so they don't value it- yet. Check back in a while and they'll likely be far less combative.

-and you likely will stop being offended by it as you grow too.

After all it's really not their fault. In our culture, we say things like "do your research" (but rarely provide it). That is important so that people can properly understand the responsibilities required to enter the hobby, but people take that to mean that the expectation is anyone who enters into the hobby is to already be an expert by the time they take their first snake home. They feel like they must portray themselves as experts in order to be part of the community, right from the very beginning. None of us were. None. 

If we are going to grow as a hobby, we need to start being honest with ourselves about that. We need to see more mentors acknowledge that they weren't always experts. That they still don't always know. That its ok to not know, and to give others a safe space to ask. Sometimes people who have been keeping less time than us really do have perspectives and methods we may not have thought of.  Babyherpers are people whom have value that even experts can benefit from. They might even surpass our accomplishments some day. We just need to take the pressure off so they have the space to learn. 

It benefits us all. 

So next time you get into it with an insta-expert online, understand that they are not doing this to you, you're just in a different stage. Show them some compassion and you might not only be the push that takes them off Mt. Stupid, but you might just create a better future for you both in the process.

Something to think about :)