Trio #4: Spotify Wrapped Revelations and how to prevent Ultracrepidarianism
Spotify Wrapped
I was excited the first time I got Spotify Wrapped. It is so wild that Spotify compiles the songs and artists we have listened to throughout the year into a story.
Wait. That’s not so wild now, is it? Track the listens for each song, compile a list, play snippets of the top songs in the background, and use the same generic format for everyone. Yes, I have oversimplified, but Spotify Wrapped hasn’t been very innovative since its inception.
At least that’s what I thought until I read this post from a year ago. Wrapped has introduced some cool features in its 6-year history. Wrapped 2019 brought us the “Best of the Decade For You“ and this year Spotify told me my top music moods are hype and chill. One year you even got to guess your top artist.
That said, I’m still frustrated that Spotify uses the same generic format for everyone. I specifically mean Podcasts!
Spotify keeps pushing its Podcast agenda, which is strategic given its music streaming market share limitations. However, Spotify needs to be realistic about who cares deeply about podcasts (Spoiler: not many people!).
This page should not be included in my Wrapped:
The fact that so many Spotify listeners don’t care about podcasts, but have to see Podcasts in their Wrapped, made me question if Wrapped was living up to its potential.
In 2016, Spotify also set the parameters for users to qualify for Wrapped, with them having to have had an account before the cutoff date and have listened to at least five different artists and 30 different tracks.
It seems painfully obvious that the same should be done for podcasts.
Last week, I came across an even better Wrapped recommendation (with accompanying design!) on a Linkedin post from Emma K.
Full Linkedin post here
Now, I know I’ve thrown a lot of shade at Spotify in this post — much more than I usually do. But what if I told you they made up for all of it?
Wrapped blend is definitely the highlight of this years spotify wrapped lol - Amber Peake
Read this well-written article for a description of Wrapped Blend and instructions on how to view your Wrapped, but Blended with your favorite friends’ music.
PS: If you already have a blend, just tap the rotating circles at the top of the playlist.
Preventing Ultracrepidarianism
Ultracrepidarianism is the tendency to give advice on subjects that one is not well-informed about. If I walked up to you in the supermarket and gave you unsolicited advice on which cream cheese to buy (because I bought one before and liked it) — this would be a display of Ultracrepidarianism. In fact, this is exactly what Angela Duckworth did.
I heard about Ultracrepidarianism from “No Stupid Questions“, a podcast co-hosted by two rockstars — Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth. They respectively authored bestsellers, Freakonomics, and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, and Duckworth is a professor of Psychology at Penn (I once saw her walking home on Locust Walk!)
Their podcast is a must-listen for anyone who is both interested in psychology and listens to podcasts.
In Episode 30, they discussed how to prevent Ultracrepidarianism and the solution is not what you think. We might think that gaining more knowledge may lead to more informed opinions and advice, but the podcast hosts found that Ultracrepidarianism is independent of one’s level of knowledge.
This is because those who are very knowledgeable fall prey to Confirmation bias and those who are uninformed fall prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek information that is consistent with one’s beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
(In fact, one of the best examples is our belief that we are inherently good people. We remember when we do good things, work hard, and are nice to our friends. But we either suppress, ignore, or explain away evidence of us being neglectful to our friendships, being lazy, or jealous of a friend)
Confirmation bias contributes to Ultracrepidarianism because it is exactly the most educated people that will seek out knowledge on the subject. But their gathered evidence is biased. This is why conversations on politics tend to entrench people more strongly in their beliefs. Therefore, you don’t talk politics in an interview.
Note: Sometimes experts in one field give advice in another. Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor, gave advice on cream cheese selection. In this case, Duckworth actually had low knowledge/expertise in cream cheese and fell prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Dunning-Kruger effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence.
Extending the Duckworth example, she was not knowledgeable enough about cream cheese to even realize the possible complexities and uses for various cream cheeses.
We all do this all the time. In “Trio #3: The best books I've read this year“ I said
Avoid arguments: can you guarantee to be right more than 75% of the time?
This one is a personal favorite, mostly because I’m argumentative by nature.
If you can’t remember a few arguments where you were wrong recently, it’s not because you’ve gotten smarter. Au contraire, it’s because you can’t see your own blind spots.
In other words, we can be terrible judges of whether we are informed enough, or whether our opinions are skewed. It makes some sense why Universities and other accreditation organizations exist — we need some way to accurately judge who knows what they’re talking about.
It turns out the way to mitigate Ultracrepidarianism is to
Seek more knowledge and Information and
Deliberately seek contradictory evidence to your opinions as well.
This includes suspending judgment and appointing a Devil’s advocate on committees.
For more ideas on how to prevent Ultracrepidarianism, I recommend Superthinking - Gabriel Weinberg. I will be writing broadly about this book soon. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.
For now, remember that even having more knowledge does not make you right!