What is a Confidence Score?
A Confidence Score is a quick self-assessment of how well I understand a topic or how authoritatively I feel I can speak about it.
It’s mainly a tool for tracking my learning journey, clarifying what’s exploratory versus established, and signaling to myself (and others) where I stand with the material.
Why It’s Important
- Transparency: Makes it clear when I’m sharing tentative ideas versus solid knowledge.
- Growth Tracking: Helps me revisit and update notes as my understanding deepens.
- Collaboration: Signals to others where feedback, questions, or guidance are especially welcome.
Confidence Score Levels
Score
- 1-2: Just heard of it; mostly questions or initial impressions.
- 3-4: Early exploration; some personal experience or curiosity, but little expertise.
- 5-6: Moderate familiarity; can summarize basics and reference some sources.
- 7-8: Solid understanding; can explain, apply, and discuss with confidence.
- 9+: Deep expertise; could teach, debate, or write authoritatively on the topic.
I’ll update these scores as I learn more, experiment, or gather new evidence.
Disclaimer
Like most everyone, I’m subject to things like overconfidence bias, Dunning Kruger, and other cognitive distortions.
A self-reported confidence score (whether high or low) doesn’t immediately (dis)qualify me as an expert or knowledgable on the topic at hand.
It’s meant as a quick reminder to readers to practice healthy caution and skepticism when consuming content from some guy on the internet (me).
Question the information you consume. Ask what my likely biases are, and what your likely biases are, then try to debias to get at the information underneath.
I am and will be wrong about some things. I aspire to seek the truth over being “right” and welcome you to do the same.