We are all subject to illusions, whether we are aware of them or not. In fact, the more convincing the illusion, the less aware we probably are.
Our perception of competence in others is often deceiving and misleading. It can be very difficult to judge someone else’s actual competence in an area well outside your field. What they say may sound reasonable or plausible, but if you are looking to actually judge the correctness of what they are saying, you are likely to get it wrong.
We are in fact challenged assessing our own competence as well, given our tendency towards overconfidence and other biases. We are the main character in our story. Famously, most people believe they are better drivers than average. There is a good chance your judge your own ability at certain things more favorable than it is.
The circle of competence provides a simple, useful model for both the view towards self as well as the one towards others.
It is easy to form beliefs about progress, productivity, isn’t it? Having a full calendar, long meetings, being busy? Constantly thinking about that project, not having time for family or friends, for yourself? Checking off that many items on the todo-list or closing that many things in your issue tracker? Some things have us feel productive, have us feel like we are making real progress. It is possible for us to feel that way, but also be wrong about it.
This is generalizeable, I think, in that the metric we use informs our thinking. The metric (i.e model) is meant to represent something (i.e. some reality), but when our focus shifts entirely to the metric, then our reality is centered around that metric and activities surrounding it, leaving the original connection to a different purpose more and more secondary, an illusion.
More generally yet, the map is not the territory. That is so obvious that pointing it out may be surprising in its redundancy, but the map-and-territory relations come in many, many forms. With some it is more easily possible to mistake the model for the modeled.
It is very easy to overlook that we do not experience reality directly, but always rather perceive views that are filtered and altered in some way. In that sense our perception of reality may be our most fundamental illusion. To be alive means to experience illusion.
Some points of view are more helpful than others. If one view turns out to be illusory, it is possible to replace it with a different one.
It is interesting that the connotations of being disillusioned are usually negative ones. Right? We think of disenchantment, disappointment, perhaps cynicism or jadedness, since at times the thing we have come to see, appears less good or desirable than we had thought.
Just think of someone who recently told you that they had become disillusioned about the quality of their job (or their manager) or the state of their relationship. It is usually not because things turned out to be better than the person had thought!
Often circumstance is not suddenly different, but you have rather come to see it differently. In that case, the reality of the situation may have been different than you thought for quite a while. Now you see clearer, you have rid yourself of an illusion.
Perhaps it is our pain – the suffering we feel when we get attached to ideas and come to understand that they are not true – that has influenced how we have come to understand and feel about the term.
A more neutral perspective might reframe disillusionment simply as the removal of an illusion: It gives you a different view. Sometimes it means replacing one illusion with a different one. Hopefully it does mean your view is clearer.
As such it is – even if startling at first – probably an improvement.