The Death of Expertise

[sd'sker]

i am trying to start an awareness campaign against oxygen. oxygen is deadly. 100% of people who breath it eventually die. it can take upwards of 90 years to fully poison you, but it will get you.

[Junior]

This is true. Oxygen can form superoxide radicals, which can cause DNA damage, among other things.

[rawhide]

What; snopes isn't the end all be all authority. 2 people working out of their garage in So Kal. They gots to know it all.

 

Ain't gonna tell you about the can of DDT I found in my Dad's garage.

[strigori]

Bill Nye vs Ham last night would fall into this category. Actual science vs circular logic.

 

Or any of the news media when they bring on some idiot (like Sarah Palin) to chime in on things they can't even spell.

 

Overall though more easily accessible knowledge is a very good thing. If a person really wants to educate themselves on a subject its easier than ever before in history.

[sd'sker]

i think the problem is that everything has to have a counterargument or another side. so, take the particle accelerator, for example. there were some rumblings that it could create a black hole. so, it was framed as some scientists think it is safe vs. some scientists believe we have outreached our grasp. however, the true experts knew there was no problem and the people concerned were crackpot high school science teachers and such.

 

there does not have to be a counterargument to everything. every story does not have to be balanced, because the news woefully misunderstands that word. balanced would be two competing theories of equal quality, not just two sides to an issue.

 

we are obsessed with argument and hearing both sides of a story, for whatever reason. heck, 90% of espn's programming is just two people shouting at each other.

[knapplc]

Message boards are a good example of this problem, although people with fringe or unsupportable ideas tend to be dissuaded from those ideas - or posting those ideas - over time. On some boards it's more direct, where they just ban you or downvote you to oblivion where you can't even post anymore. On others (like HuskerBoard) the preponderance of agreement eventually, obliquely sometimes, blunts the fringe people to the wayside. They either stop posting because there isn't reinforcement here for their ideas or they find somewhere else to post that more agrees with what they believe.

 

Case in point - I joined BigHuskerFan a few years ago to go somewhere to talk Huskers where I wasn't a Mod, I could just be a regular member. I ventured into their politics forum (The Third Rail) and was immediately beset by what I consider to be extremely right-wing nonsense. My moderate views were considered left-wing radical (even moreso than here!) and, because I just got tired of the BS, I stopped posting there.

 

There are examples of folks here who have done the same. The tenor of the majority (or the loudest voices) drives people to someplace that more fits their preconceived notions. It's a common human trait, and I was quite cognizant of what I was doing when I stopped posting on that other forum.

 

As far as opinions, I learned from a previous job that all opinions are not the same - and that was because my opinion was as valued as that of actual qualified experts. I had a job in a dotcom startup back in the 1990s boom out in Silicon Valley. We hired several really crazy-qualified guys by throwing money at them. I was a basic peon QA dude who checked to see if the website we were designing actually worked. We'd have these meetings with the whole company (all 12-16 of us) and the CEO would ask for opinions on things. Everyone had to chime in, from the former EVP of Marketing at Levi-Strauss whom we paid a mint to lure to our little startup to me, some schmoe from the cornfields who knew nothing about nothing. I couldn't understand why anyone would want me to opine in that room - I had no idea what to do with a marketing campaign, or a logo, or a catchphrase - yet I was called upon time and again, and listened to. I learned the difference between a qualified opinion and an unqualified opinion, and that in most cases, mine was unqualified and had no bearing on reality.

 

 

 

 

The one caveat to all this is, especially in the message board/internet arena, there are some people who just like the discussion, and don't really care if your opinion is valid, qualified or logical. I'm that way, which is why I get into the debate on so many things despite the lack of logic on the other side of the discussion.

 

I just like the discussion.

 

I think that lends itself to the seeming credence that peoples' opinions have online, but it's not a reality. Nobody who knows their stuff would take an unqualified opinion as valid. Those who can think critically are the ones who know not to take every argument seriously.

 

 

 

The problem is, most people don't know how to think critically about a situation. They don't even know they should know how to think critically, or what that even means.

 

And that's why it seems like expertise is no longer valuable.

[rawhide]

Voila:

 

another point of view