delusion of adequacy

English

Etymology

An ironic variation of delusion of grandeur.

Noun

delusion of adequacy (plural delusions of adequacy)

1. (usually in the plural) The false belief that one is adequate; the belief that one is doing a competent job when one is actually incompetent.
   • 2005, Paul Lucas, Linda A. Lavid, Creatura, page 146:

     But compared to the jagged, snow-covered peaks in the distance, the mountains back east were mud hills with delusions of adequacy.

   • 2015, Ginny Gilder, chapter 1, in Course Correction: A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX:

     Whatever delusion of adequacy my admission to my father's alma mater had encouraged evaporated like morning dew, and I was left to panic before the stark, unblinking truth: I was an interloper.