The Modern Expert

Wayne Lazarides - Thursday, June 16, 2011

 Information is so readily available these days. How does that change what it means to be an expert?

An "expert" is a person with authoritative knowledge to whom one turns when one is in search of answers. Nowadays, information is so widely available via the internet that people are both inclined and empowered to find the answers to their questions themselves. But is that acquiring knowledge or just raw data?

You can look up a symptom that is troubling you and find a range of possible diagnoses, but what you don’t have access to is the know-how that the expert can bring to bear on your specific condition. You probably won’t learn to ride a bicycle from reading about it, and you are unlikely to get coaching that is tailored to you without a pair of expert eyes watching you.

So, I think the modern expert is defined by integrated knowledge, the kind that knows instantly how to ski the upcoming mogul, or perform Paganini’s Caprice for the joy of it, or can feel a dog’s illness in his hands, or sees what’s missing in a design. You can’t find answers to questions like these in databases, and often you won’t get them from the people who have the degrees that name them the experts.

The expert who is both knowledgeable and highly sought afterlives, walks, and breathes their subject. Their expertise is almost integrated into their cell consciousness, so his right hand knows what his left hand is doing, his emotions and his mind are teamed up, and his legs signal to his brain to leave that mogul to us.

And, the jury is still out on whether the internet makes it easier or harder to separate the know-it-alls from those who truly walk-the-talk. What do you think?

Credits: Precis and comment from an article published in Ode Magazine "Defining the modern expert"