Respecting expertise does not require automatically deferring to it.

I'm a great respector of expertise. There are huge tracts of human knowledge on which I am as well-informed as a cow on the geopolitical implications of the rising price of gold. So I look to experts, proceeding on the assumption that they are honest. Further, I get fairly irate when ignoramuses prate on about subjects that they know nothing of.

This does not mean turning off my critical thinking. But it does mean that I proceed on the assumption that the expert knows what he's about until I get a chance to research the subject for myself -- and accepting that sometimes things appear not to make sense because I don't understand the subject deeply enough.

This is a tricky balance, and I admit that I tend to err on the side of caution[1]; a lack of Hubris, I suppose.

D'A

[1]: Thinking about this, I've generally concluded that my excesses of caution come about in reaction to others running where D'Archangels fear to tread.

Send an invitation to this claim