Both professional activities and hobbies
For example… If a new hire is introduced as “good at Python and C++” at work, what does this imply about the person’s skill level in your opinion? Or if someone says they are a “good runner”, what would come to your mind? Or is it field-dependent?
Asking because sometimes I’m not sure if I am under/over-exaggerating my own abilities when meeting new ppl at work/etc…
Personally if someone was described as “good”, I’d take it to mean they could do it at an expected level (not going to hold the team back). If someone was above average at the task then I’d expect a different adjective, e.g. great or excellent.
Comments like that say far more about the person saying it than about the person being described most of the time, I’d say.
I’d need to know how good the describer is like in that area before I could make any assessment about the describee.
It’s always in relation to what the speaker considers average in that situation.
If someone at home is good at cooking, they could make nice meals out of fish while everyone else in that group can just make porridge. If someone at work is good at autocad, they can make technical drawings while everyone else can just barely read them.
If we’re speaking minimum I’d say the person is at least an “advanced user”, possibly implying they’re naturally gifted for it as well and can develop and evolve that specific talent at a faster rate than the average person would.
As for the latter question, I’d focus less on what I think about myself and more on feedback from others. If they say you’re “good”, even if you don’t define yourself as such, chances are that you are good. If you weren’t they’d be much quicker to judge and criticize you.
People are different, and have different tastes and predispositions. No one is “good” at everything, and everyone has some kind of hidden talent, no matter how useless it may seem in some contexts. And some stuff even if you’re not naturally talented (I.e. basic living skills such as cooking, basic DIY fixing or cleaning) you should always strive to learn enough to at least be an independent person.
That’s basically how I feel, and as someone who once tended to undersell himself while most people praised my skills a lot and came to me for help regularly on tech-related stuff. Some even get hateful over how fast-learning and adaptable I can be at stuff I like to do, since it tends to be rewarding and fast-tracks me to a better life standard.
Still, humbleness is always a good trait, and often appreciated. At the very least better than being overconfident and making a fool out of oneself by attempting to swallow more than one can chew.
Depends on who is talking and the context.
If I go to a WH40k night at a FLGS, and someone points to a specific guy and says they’re good at 40k, I’ll probably take their word for it. They’re in an environment where they’ve been tested regularly and that guy probably is one of the better ones at the shop. Are they able to play at a major tournament and place well? Maybe, maybe not.
For a new hire for programming, depends on who is saying it. Were they in the team for the hiring process? Do they have a track record of picking up good talent?
I also have a working theory that it’s not too hard to better than 75% of people who do a given thing. For example, here’s a breakdown of Chess.com ELO ratings (taken from the other site, dated April 2023):
Getting to 75% would be a little over 900 ELO. Which is interesting, because not only is that fairly low, but it’s also below the 1200 that you typically get assigned as a new player. Though Chess.com does assign that based on your self reported skill level at signup.
You are probably underestimating your abilities.
People that worry about overestimating their skills mostly underestimate their skills.If someone says they are “good” at something, I take it to mean competency and some enthusiasm.
They might make a mistake, but they won’t (or at least will rarely) make it twice.
They know how to find the solution to something within that domain of knowledge. It might not be the best solution, but it will be a solution that works.
They are also aware of what they don’t know in within the domain. So, they can do C++ but know they can’t do embedded programming. Or they can do C#, but know they can’t do game dev.And I would take them at their word for that, until they prove otherwise.
If they are below where they claim their skill is, I would try to help them learn (unless they show no interest in improving).
If they are above where they claim, I would tell them this.It’s always hard to judge our own skills.
A lot of people have already pointed out that the person saying it is an important detail. If your mom says you’re good at python, I’m going to get a very different idea about your skill level compared to your boss saying it.
Unless you are selling yourself in an interview context, I think it’s very poor form to qualify your own skill level. Let the skill speak for itself, it’s enough to say that you ‘do python’. Saying you’re good at something often comes off as braggadocios more than it is informative. If you must give context, it’s better to talk about how much experience you have, or other objective metrics
Qualifiers are too context dependant and no matter where your skill level is at, you wont ever have enough context to know how good you actually are, because you can’t know what you don’t know.
It’s context dependent, not field dependent. “Good at [something]” usually means it’s simply above average. In some occasions, it can mean it’s just average as opposed to terrible. In other occasions it means it’s exceptionally good.
For your specific examples I would believe they’re somewhat above average, but not impressive, unless more context indicates so.
8/10
5/10. Understands what’s going. Could certainly be better, but fuck ups are uncommon.
I assume competent. If you’re “good” at it, you can do it without much more than the expected amount of help.
If you’re a good runner, I’m not expecting you to win, but I expect you’ll be able to finish it.
- Have you invested time learning how to do/improve the skill?
- Have you seen progress in your skill level?
“Good” is relative
Imposter syndrome just limits you. Nothing wrong with fake it 'til you make it. If you’re not doing it, someone else is. Just base your opinion of them on what you see, and act the same regarding other’s opinions of you. Actions speak louder than words.
In my opinion it really depends on what they are talking about if a person says they are good at cooking I assume they are slightly above average if a person says they are good at working on cars I assume they are better than 95% of the population