delusion of adequacy

Coined by American writer and Broadway theater critic Walter Kerr in 1951 in a review in New York Herald Tribune review of a Broadway play called Buy Me Blue Ribbons (in reference to star Jay Robinson). An ironic variation of delusion of grandeur.

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.

   • 1951 October 18, Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune:

     Mr. Robinson is not up to the course he has set for himself. In the play, the character concludes by giving up his dreams of overnight stardom and deciding to learn his trade from the bottom up. All Mr. Robinson can honestly do now is to take his own advice. At the moment, he is suffering from delusions of adequacy.