People of low ability are half-empty wine bottles that make the most noise

CorporateNature No 131

Ullage is the headspace of air between a liquid and the container holding that liquid. The ullage level is particularly important in winemaking, as too much ullage may lead to excessive oxidation which worsens the quality of the wine.

Minimising ullage makes the relationship between bottle and content more straightforward, or else a false impression about the whole package may be created. In the human world this has a parallel known as the Dunning Kruger effect: the cognitive bias of low-ability people to overestimate their abilities.

The Chinese have captured the Dunning-Kruger effect brilliantly in the expression 半瓶水响叮当 (bànpíngshuǐ xiǎng dīngdāng): "empty vessels make the most noise". Literally, this translates as “if you tap a half-empty bottle it makes a sound”. The metaphor here is that a person of low ability resembles a half-empty bottle: self-aggrandising and insecure executives are noticeably more noisy than the capable executives.

Philosopher Bertrand Russel put this even more eloquently:

“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”

So can we try to make sure that our “ullage level” is always kept to a minimum? After all, nobody would like to open an expensive bottle of wine only to discover that its content has turned into vinegar.

Bordeaux wines with different ullage levels
(image source: Wikipedia)