# The Illusion of Knowledge The illusion of knowledge states that the **worst** time to look for knowledge is at the time you need it. The problem can be stated as follows: * When we are first searching for information, what we find is easily accessible. * We will overvalue this information since it appears to have brought us closer to solving our problem. * However, this superficial information has increased our _confidence_, but has not increased our probability of solving our problem successfully. * We start making decisions based on _incomplete understanding_. We are incompetent, yet we don't even know it. This has been referred to as the [Information-paradox](Information-paradox.md). --- tags: #decision-making #mental-models #cognitive-biases links: [Decision by Design MOC](Decision%20by%20Design%20MOC.md) created: 2020-11-19 modified: 2020-11-19