There is just something about experts that causes us to hope they are making a mistake.
It may be the tendency of experts to be confident in their own skills. They believe in their ability to take everything into consideration, to anticipate all the variables. Experts often project a sense they have things under control. They have a level of understanding that is beyond us.
Many experts tend to emphasize the reasons we should trust them to know what is best.
What makes someone an expert? How does someone get designated as an expert?
People recognize experts who have authoritative knowledge or skill in an area. Experts are people who can be relied on to know what they are talking about. Expertise is partly a matter of education and study, analyzing and thinking about a subject. Expertise also depends on experience, an ability to see and learn from new approaches.
We tend to see some experts as having more ability than they claim for themselves. People who have significant expertise in one area are often asked for insight in other areas. We tend to give them credit for being able to make good decisions in general.
We also tend to give more weight to expertise based in education than that based in experience. It can be easy for us to forget that people who do not have extensive schooling may have valuable experience.
Many of the most valuable lessons I have learned have little to do with my analytical skills. It can be when I stop trying out to figure a situation that my deeper expertise comes through.
Are you an expert?
Which are the areas in which you have the most expertise?
What subjects intrigue you enough that you might become an expert in them?
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