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…
Better than me.
Depends on context and the skill in question. For example, in my office, good at technology means you know how to submit a ticket to IT and you don’t have a panic attack if someone mentions excel.
Above 50-percentile in comparison to others who also participate in that subject/hobby/activity, but usually below the 90-percentile, because then they’d not be described as “good”, but “great”
In my opinion it really depends on the person saying that. There are just way too many factors like Dunning-Krueger, the interpretation of the word ‘good’ (Just sufficient? Above average?), or just their own ego/modesty.
I would say I’m decent with numbers. I don’t like to boast, and I’m sure I’m terribly far from being a prodigy (I am quite far), but I have the feeling I can multiply double digit numbers in my head faster than the average. That doesn’t even tell you much anyway.
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.
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
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.
Bear in mind it can depend what country someone is from.
Traditionally, a Briton saying “I’m kind of okay at this” might mean they’re one of the best in the world (mustn’t blow one’s own trumpet).
A Briton who says “I’m great at this” (or anything beyond “pretty good”) is likely an arrogant charlatan.
In contrast, an American might say “I’m good at this” to mean “I am better than average”.
I’d imagine other countries have their own tendencies for under/overstatement.
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.
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.
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.
- Have you invested time learning how to do/improve the skill?
- Have you seen progress in your skill level?
“Good” is relative
If someone ever claims to be good at something, I would want to see a demonstration that examples their expertise. Because it is hard to take people at their word sometimes, so a demo is required.
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.
