delusion of adequacy

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.