That statement sounds backward as all get out and truthfully I’m not sure the justification provided in the Harvard Business Review will clear things up much better for you.

In a piece simply titled, “Less Confident People are More Successful,” Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an international authority in personality profiling and psychometric testing, writes:

“After many years of researching and consulting on talent, I’ve come to the conclusion that self-confidence is only helpful when it’s low. Sure, extremely low confidence is not helpful: it inhibits performance by inducing fear, worry, and stress, which may drive people to give up sooner or later. But just-low-enough confidence can help you recalibrate your goals so they are (a) more realistic and (b) attainable.”

Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic then writes out three points to support his argument:

1. Lower self-confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self-critical: Most people get trapped in their optimistic biases, so they tend to listen to positive feedback and ignore negative feedback. Although this may help them come across as confident to others, in any area of competence (e.g., education, business, sports or performing arts) achievement is 10% performance and 90% preparation. Thus, the more aware you are of your soft spots and weaknesses, the better prepared you will be.

2. Lower self-confidence can motivate you to work harder and prepare more: If you are serious about your goals, you will have more incentive to work hard when you lack confidence in your abilities. In fact, low confidence is only demotivating when you are not serious about your goals.

3. Lower self-confidence reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant or being deluded. Although we live in a world that worships those who worship themselves — from Donald Trump to Lady Gaga to the latest reality TV “star” — the consequences of hubris are now beyond debate. According to Gallup, over 60% of employees either dislike or hate their jobs, and the most common reason is that they have narcissistic bosses. If managers were less arrogant, fewer employees would be spending their working hours on Facebook, productivity rates would go up, and turnover rates would go down.

Adding a little more meat in between each of the points, the professor’s overarching point is that the less confident you are in what you’re doing, the more likely you are to prepare and work hard at achieving something. That obviously makes sense but when it comes to actually performing the things prepared for in moments of low confidence, appearing more self-assured is definitely valuable. Perhaps this article would have been better written as a cautionary tale to being over-confident rather than advocating a low level of self-confidence but I guess we get the point.

What do you think about this argument? Is it valid?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Do you remember what life was like before you cared what people you would never interact with on a daily basis in person were doing every waking minute? It’s hard to remember, but it’s likely you weren’t comparing your life to there’s—because honestly you had no idea what they were up to.

Author Daniel Gulati, a blogger for Harvard Business Review, says all that TMI information shared online is creating a subconscious “ranking” among friends when we compare someone’s online “status” to our real lives.

“Facebook is making us unhappy by making everyone else look really, really happy,” he says.

The social networking site also leads to a loss of productivity in work and leisure and can negatively affect close, in-person relationships.

“Meeting up in person, you get a much richer connection versus a video chat or a text-based chat.  It’s cannibalizing the offline interaction. That’s what’s worrying to me — the future prospect of Facebook conversations and video calls as opposed to meeting up at the local coffee shop,” he says.

“Facebook is bringing down a lot of people’s daily sense of well-being.”

So how can you fix it? By setting aside a daily time to visit Facebook and taking one day off per week. You should also get rid of all those apps on your mobile phone and “strengthen real-world relationships,” he says.

I think it’s much easier to set aside time to look at Facebook than Twitter because of the constant updates, but every time I’ve even tried to take a break from the site, like clockwork I would get a text message from a friend asking, “did you see such and such’s status?” I think we’re stuck with the Internet monster we’ve created.

Do you find yourself comparing your real life to the “lives” of your Facebook friends? Do you feel like Facebook limits your productivity and hurts your real-life relationships?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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