- Text Size +


I'm no stranger to writing about dangerous idiots who don't know they are dangerous idiots. I did so here when telling the story of some seriously fetarded hipsters trying to kill a girl with rope, without even realising it.

I did so again here, when talking about ignorant idiots who are in a hurry to teach others, even though they are severely lacking in the necessary requirements.

Ever heard the saying; "You just don't know, what you just don't know"

It infers that people are ignorant of their own ignorance. Thus we are left with the paradoxical conundrum, that the people in most need of education, direction, training, and coaching are the least likely to seek it. Because they are trapped in a false belief that they are awesome.

This is called The Dunning-Kruger effect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Which is:

a cognitive bias wherein unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than is accurate. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude. Conversely, highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate their relative competence, erroneously assuming that tasks that are easy for them are also easy for others.

Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

  • fail to recognize their own lack of skill
  • fail to recognize genuine skill in others
  • fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy
  • recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they are exposed to training for that skill

Dunning later said;

*"If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent.... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is."

Basically these people are on the bottom level of the fours stages of competence. For those who are unfamiliar, I've included it below, along with a link.

The four stages of competence

Unconscious incompetence

The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.

Conscious incompetence

Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.

Conscious competence

The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.

Unconscious competence

The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.


So why am I back on Fetlife ranting about this shit for a third time? Because it just keeps fucking happening. Every fucking year like motherfucking Groundhog Day!

Because every respected Rigger in Sydney is losing faith in humanity because of a Justin Bieber look alike baby-Dom, who has been around since five minutes ago, has decided to pull the all-to-common trick, of fabricating a back story that includes years of experience, that no one can verify more than six months of. And start calling himself a "Rope Master".

And that's not the bit that has us contemplating the benefits of an asteroid strike. No!

The bit that has us shaking our collective heads in dismay, is the fact that, said idiot; decided to rope a girl who had never been roped before, in the most crowded hellfire I've ever seen. And then do a neck rope on her, using a larks head, and then use this neck rope to do breath play, on someone who has never done breath play before........

Meanwhile, this overconfident fuckwit doesn't even have a first aid certificate.

Now, I know that people are chomping at the bit to run to the comments section with cookie-cutter pearls of wisdom like "If they are both consenting adults, then who are you to kink shame them". And other classic lines like; "If nobody was hurt, then how is this any of your business".

Well, to that I say, it's my business because this shit doesn't happen in a vacuum, and that the actions of idiots negatively impact us all. This is the same moron who decided to take the biggest chefs knife in the block into a crowded licensed venue to use during wax play. Which was subsequently confiscated by security, and spawned a "No sharps" policy at that club.

Thanks champ.

I'd also say, that consent doesn't mean shit if it isn't informed! If you are taking someone who is completely ignorant of an activity, and misrepresenting your own skill level, and not informing them of the risks, then you aren't giving the other person the autonomy to truly give consent.

So here's the pitch:

Realise where you are on the scale of competence, and go seek further training. Stop lying about your past, your skill, your experience, and how much of a protege you think you are.

The Sydney Rope Dojo runs classes for beginners on Wednesday nights, intermediates on Thursdays nights, and holds weekend workshops for advanced stuff. They are even running one soon called "Running with Scissors; how to safely do all the things your mum told you not to" which even covers neck ropes.

And for fucks sake; Stop being a Todd!


You must login (register) to review.
Home - - Contact Us