The following article was written by Mr. Kim, who is from Pakistan. He is a student of neuro-psychology, and interested in topics related to self-improvement, social relationships, mind sciences and metaphysics.

The Perfect Imperfection

In this part we will review the fake-attitude of those people who wear a mask of perfection, and often exhibit a behaviour of “jack of all trades” or “Know-it-all” person.

This kind of behaviour is mostly shown by kids and teenagers, however it is also depicted by adults especially in their career-life. To begin, let’s look at exactly what this behaviour is.

The Omniscient Person

Jack of all trades describes a person who has a little or some knowledge of a wide range of subjects, and may communicate or work upon any subject easily.

However, it should be noted that such person cannot remain committed to a particular subject or task, and mostly is unable to complete any given task or debate when confronted with the requirement of detailed knowledge.

So a jack of all trades is typically characterised by an incomplete knowledge of a wide range of topics.

It would be interesting to note that all human beings are jacks of all trades to some extent, but often hesitate to show this behaviour.

Rational people believe that they should talk on that subject confidently about which they have a sound knowledge, and as for those topics for which they feel confused or possess a lack of information, they either avoid them or take interest in learning further.

It should be noted that it is neither bad nor negative that you know a little about everything, as this naturally occurs when you read different books, magazines or watch T.V / Movies.

Your brain receives a lot of relevant and irrelevant information, and once any information is registered by our brain it can never be removed completely.

So we all possess a little knowledge of mostly different subjects, which may or may not be related to our field of expertise.

The Problem With A Jack Of All Trades

The actual problem starts from the point when a person tries to impress or dominate others by showing-off this information, pretending they have a full-command over the subject.

When someone talks with them, they mostly cut the sentence in the mid. And rather than listening to the full conversation, they start telling their information on that subject and somehow try to dominate the other person’s knowledge, so they can feel a sense of superiority over others.

Let’s have a look at an example of such a conversation between two guys, namely Bill & Ben, where Bill is a simple person and Ben shows this kind of fake-attitude.

Bill: I think our accounts teacher is cool.

Ben: why?

Bill:   He has a good command of his subject. He can explain complex theories in very simple manner.

Ben: No big deal! He is good at how teaching others, but may be not good at accounts. This is how I feel!

Bill; No Ben, I have seen how he solves the complex problems such as preparing a financial statement of a big corporation and…

Ben: OK, OK, you just tell me what the basic accounting equation is?

Bill;  mmmmm, I think assets minus capital equity or…. Let me think again.

Ben: Huh, it is assets minus liabilities equals to capital. I did not know that you are so dumb in even basic accounts. Now I can understand why you were so impressed by that accounts teacher.

Bill; Its not like that, I was just unable to recall it quickly, if you would have given me sometime I could…

Ben; No point going further! Ok tell me, can you prepare trail-balance and General Journals?

Bill; I can, but I need to review the rules again before preparing it.

Ben; I can tell you the whole details right now and also, yesterday , I prepared the balance sheet for my dad’s super store.

Bill; Sounds great! Interesting…

Ben; Not only that, I can also operate accounts on a computer! You know my dad has asked me to go for ACCA instead of going for simple BA but I am ok with it, after all I already know all that crap so I don’t think ACCA is something I should be doing.

Bill; Wow Ben, I did not know that you are so good at accounts. Please can you give me tuition for this?

Ben; I would love to but I have some other obligations. Hey, I would give you the names of some good books and you can find you way easily.

Bill; that’s so kind of you!

  
In the above conversation, it can be easily noted that Ben tried to impress Bill because he disliked that Bill was impressed with his accounts teacher.

You can easily find that it sounds like Ben is quite perfect at accounts and knows a lot in detail, and this is how he removed the good impression of his accounts teacher and substituted his own self as the center of praise and attention.

The sole purpose of these people is actually to earn praise and be in the lime-light every time and in front of everyone.

This is how they feel a great feeling of satisfaction and a sense of superiority over others. They are naturally jealous people and dislike it if any other person is the center of attention.

The Identification & Cure

In order to spot such person, please note that no matter whatever the subject you would discuss, you always get an impression that this person has a very good command over it.

But in the meantime they would be unable to keep discussing a particular topic and would hop from one topic to another frequently.

They are less eager to learn anything or listen to others and pretend as if they already know what the other person is trying to tell them.

Moreover, they highly dislike it if you praise anyone and it is very difficult for them to digest the praise of someone else.

It is also hard for them to truly appreciate or praise anyone else and if under compulsion they have to, they do it in such a manner that finally they themselves become the center of praise.

For example, they may praise like “I appreciate Bill and how he prepared the thesis, but if he would have used some more references, like I used, it would be better!”

When you face such person, the best course of action is to somehow try to drag them to a topic on which you yourself have a good command (Note that the topic should not be related to their actual field of expertise, rather something outside).

Once they start pretending their perfect knowledge on that subject too, you should start cross questioning and introspecting. Soon you will discover if that person was really perfect, or was just pretending.

However be careful, as this type of person will try their best to change the subject by all of sudden citing some personal experiences or irrelevant references. So you need to be a little stubborn and stick to your subject.

If you are successful in exposing them to themselves, then over time it is very unlikely that they would try to dominate you and would behave in their natural manner.

Such practice (I prefer to say therapy) is very necessary when you have a colleague or class fellow who exhibits this behaviour, because after impressing others, they start taking advantage and let others do most of their work unconsciously.

And because people have a feeling of likeness for them, they tend to assist them in their tasks and this is how this person plays stupid with as many people as possible.

In the next part we will discuss another interesting fake-attitude, the “Emotional Blackmailer”.

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