Experts

Alligatorob

Alligatorob

SF VIP
Location
Northern Utah, transplanted from Florida/Louisiana
I see a lot of expert bashing here, some of it with good reason, some not. In general I believe we do have many experts and they are getting better, however we are trusting them less. I believe there are some reasons for this including:
  1. People being portrayed in the media as experts who are not. Just because a person is articulate and appears to be an expert doesn't make them one, but it could get them on TV.
  2. True experts are not necessarily good communicators.
  3. The difficulty we naturally have with understanding and accepting uncertainty. We want black and white answers where they don't exist. This is true of all of us, some more than others.
I was prompted to post this based on a very good and balanced podcast on the subject by Michael Lewis on why Americans disrespect experts. https://www.audible.com/pd/Michael-Lewis-on-why-Americans-distrust-experts-Podcast/B09Y5ZGJQW I think he does a very good job of explaining the problem. In the end if we are to make any scientific or technical progress we need to figure out how to understand what experts really are and can tell us, and what they can't.
 

For some, everything is seen in a Democrat vs, Republican state of war. If an expert supports one of these, he is either deified by one side, and vilified by the other. And then TV spin networks follow the lead, either praising or undercutting the experts. Of course, the blogs, etc kick in- again down political lines. Some political bloggers, whose only skill is typing fast, become pseudo experts in everything
 
fuzzybuddy said:
For some, everything is seen in a Democrat vs, Republican state of war. If an expert supports one of these, he is either deified by one side, and vilified by the other.
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I agree, true expertise should be, and be taken as, politically neutral. However that can be hard these days. And I think some true experts are part of the problem, all too often experts venture outside of their area of expertise into the political.

A good example I see is in climate science, there are a lot of good climate science experts. However many of these are no more expert in what should and can be done politically to deal with the problem than most of us. This is where they lose credibility... I could say the same for the whole Covid thing, but we have talked that one more or less to death here already.
fuzzybuddy said:
Some political bloggers, whose only skill is typing fast, become pseudo experts in everything
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Good point, and I think probably equally on the right and the left!
 
"I see a lot of expert bashing here"

We also have a few condescending know it all's here. Other then that,
the past 2 years every Doctor seemed to be an expert. They wrote articles, did You Tube videos, talked to news reporters etc. Everyone was an expert. :rolleyes:

That's my 2 cents, I'll listen to the podcast later.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I would love to trust experts but they have mislead/lied about extremely important subjects. Plus there are so many experts on every subject now that podcasts are available. They could be lying for personal gain, or their personal beliefs.
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I think the lying or misleading anyway for personal gain has always been a problem, nothing new there. The difference is today we have become more aware of it though the wide availability of experts, semi-experts, and frauds on the internet.

Somehow we have to figure out how to muddle through, in time I am optimistic that we will. We do need to listen to expert advice and analysis, just need to be able to sort it a bit. Not that I claim to know how...
 
SeniorBen said:
How exactly did Bill Gates become an "expert" on covid-19 and pandemics?
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He's not, but is a good example of a non-expert who has the means to grab a platform.

Perhaps his money would be better spent supporting research and giving some real experts the chance to learn more and possibly talk about it.

But it is his money, he has the right to spend it that way, and we have the right to ignore his opinions. I am exercising that right at the moment.
 
Alligatorob said:
He's not, but is a good example of a non-expert who has the means to grab a platform.

Perhaps his money would be better spent supporting research and giving some real experts the chance to learn more and possibly talk about it.

But it is his money, he has the right to spend it that way, and we have the right to ignore his opinions. I am exercising that right at the moment.
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Same here. I really don't care what he has to say about anything.
 
horseless carriage said:
Before the internet we never had armchair experts.
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I think we did, but a smaller number of people were exposed to their pronouncements and/or rants: Family, friends and co-workers. Occasionally they might turn up on Public Access cable or by being in vicinity or witness to something at right time on a local news show. Till the Internet local news stayed local unless some truly bizarre or exceptional event happened and the wire services picked it up.
 
You made very good points in the OP Rob. And sometimes the "experts" (I usually wind up putting that word in quotes) speak too soon. Look what health experts did with COVID. They spoke definitively before knowing the full story and kept having to change the narrative. Personally I love it when my doctor says "I don't know (about whatever), let me check it out or this specialist is better able to handle that situation.

Also, sometimes they can be as expert as they want but have no real way of knowing the outcome of something. For instance...
My distrust of financial experts regarding the stock market. Several well known, well respected financial analysts recommended, in fact highly touted, Fitbit years ago. Me being leery of individual stocks at the time made me buy less than 50 shares. Good thing because that stock tanked big time. It went from a high (that I recollect) of $45 to around $6 the time before last when I checked. Last time I looked (out of curiosity), the ticker symbol didn't even come up. I had sold before the deep dive but still lost money.
 
Educational credentials can be a positive sign about the accuracy of info the person may have. But they should not be only criteria and one should never hesitate to ask questions:
Is their degree in the field they are commenting on or better yet have they specialized in one area of that field? I'm big fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku but when it comes discussing consciousness i'll give more weight to what neuroscientists say.

Also two PhDs in same field are not necessarily equally to be trusted: From what schools with what grades? What is their track record?

When doubtful check various experts' opinions, and in addition to practical questions about their qualifications and about how studies they cite have been designed, i ask myself if this person has erred badly in the past and if there is any indication they might tailor opinions to suit people they either admire or have to answer to in some away.
 
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The nice thing about smartphones is that when some self-proclaimed "expert" (i.e., he or she read it on the internet, often on someone's personal blog) makes a claim that you know is wrong, you can fact-check them on the spot and show them they're wrong. Sometimes, they simply didn't understand the information they read or just looked at the headline. I've seen examples of that here on SeniorForums. Some people are impervious to facts that don't comport with their worldview, in which case it's best to just back away slowly and let them be.
 
SeniorBen said:
The nice thing about smartphones is that when some self-proclaimed "expert" (i.e., he or she read it on the internet, often on someone's personal blog) makes a claim that you know is wrong, you can fact-check them on the spot and show them they're wrong. Sometimes, they simply didn't understand the information they read or just looked at the headline. I've seen examples of that here on SeniorForums. Some people are impervious to facts that don't comport with their worldview, in which case it's best to just back away slowly and let them be.
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Just reading headlines or video/article titles is a huge mistake, often they are deliberately misleading, sensationalized to get more clicks AND the least factually informative part of the whole thing.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I would love to trust experts but they have mislead/lied about extremely important subjects. Plus there are so many experts on every subject now that podcasts are available. They could be lying for personal gain, or their personal beliefs.
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Bloggers and podcasters aren't particularly "experts", just makin' a living on the internet. Youtube is a great resource for many types of technical information, plus all the "Hello Kitty" vids you might want. But, I wouldn't go 'worship' at any of the political alters on YT....

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