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Some people claim to know everything. Is that even possible?
No.
It depends on your definition of expert. If you define an expert as someone who knows a large amount of information in a particular field, then no. That's a crock of shit, since every answer we solve only creates more questions. That's not really a bad thing. It's good to know things, and it's good to have questions, but experts are people who know much more than the majority of the public do on a certain topic.
Just because someone isn't 'recognized' as an expert on a particular subject, doesn't mean they aren't an expert on that subject, either, and just because someone is recognized doesn't mean they actually are an expert. The lines are blurry.
Still, 'experts' are needed. Not the ones that go on the news and blab about how something is bad because they were paid to do so, I mean people who are actually skilled in their field and work their ass off with the information they've learned that lets them be called an 'expert.'
"What's an expert? I read somewhere, that the more a man knows, the more he knows, he doesn't know. So I suppose one definition of an expert would be someone who doesn't admit out loud that he knows enough about a subject to know he doesn't really know how much." Malcolm Forbes
"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field." Niels Bohr
"An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less." Nicholas M. Butler
"An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions." Levi Strauss
"An expert is someone who tells you why you can't do something." Alec Issigonis
“Blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Einstein
“Challenge conventional wisdom and never accept the truth of something merely because everyone else views it as obvious.” Fredrich Haller Einstein’s first employer
On the subject of expertise, what would you say would constitute expertise? I think the word expertise is synonymous with "proficiency at"
I think expertise is certainly over rated, indeed there's a sense of the word "expert" which appears inexorable from rating. The recognized "expert" carries a high rating with those who are convinced of her expertise.
Some people give better advice than others. Some people can give very valuable advice about one thing, and dangerous advice elsewhere. Einsteins quote so beautifully puts the problem in perspective. (By the way I had "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." in my collection) It's not about giving up the wise practice of respecting authority but not having the cowardice of thought so typically associated with putting someone (or some expert group) on too high a mental pedestal.
Somehow we have to work out a balance between how much thinking we do for ourselves and how much we let others think for us. I think the balance has been tipped too far toward the latter for too long a time.
"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field." Niels Bohr
This one I think is most relevant to your debate subject. My thoughts are that being too proud to take advice from an expert is foolish, however I also don't want to ignore that excessive trust seems to cause the greater problems.
If you respect someones opinion you must consider them expert in a sense no?
An expert isn't someone who knows everything. An expert is someone who has an advanced knowledge and many years of experience in his field.
The idea that there are no experts, or that they claim to know everything, is probably rooted in the idea that if there are no experts then everyone's opinion is equal.
Each person has a different amount of qualifications to support their opinion. You're confusing the fact that everyone has an equal right to give an opinion, with the opinions being equal.
Imagine you are ill. There is one doctor and 5 nurses. The doc looks at you and says you have terminal cancer and have to go for chemotherapy soon. The 5 nurses chime in unison that its utter nonsense and the bad doctor is just trying to scare you and get more fees out of you since he's a greedy capitalist. Its just a normal flu bug. You go home and take a few panadol, content in the fact that since everyone's opinion is equal, the majority opinion wins.
You die of terminal cancer a month later.
When you can't get them with logic, sarcasm works. XD Everyone is of course entitled to give an opinion. However, the fact remains that either your opinion is a qualified opinion of a unqualified one. Hence 2 things will happen to you:
1: Your qualified opinion is taken into account and respected.
2: Your unqualified opinion is taken for utter blather and claptrap and you die alone and unwanted, spurned among friends and colleagues with only your dozen or so cats for company. And of course they eat your body after you die. XD
When logic fails, sarcasm doesn't penetrate, use exaggeration.
You have cancer and are given all the options of treatment, the final say is yours. All those choices are equal in the sense they are options, what is not equal is the success rate for each option.
No opinion should be totally ignored. The treatment that works for you maybe one not even offered by the hospital you went to. If I had cancer and the gal in waiting room said her husband had that same type of cancer and recovered 100% from it, her opinion carries weight. To find out it was from some experimental drug study done by the university of crap, I would still research further and decide my fate. Often the unconventional works. I always bet on the long shot, the reward is greater.
If somebody tells you don't stick your arm inside, do you listen? If somebody in a wheelchair tells you the same thing, do you listen?
This reminds of a question that was on my drivers license test. It went something like this. Which do you give the right away to? A gasoline tanker or a man with a white tipped cane. I said the gasoline tanker. I got the question wrong, the right answer is the man with the white tipped cane. I carefully weighed what would happen if I crashed into both and picked the wrong answer. Today, I still would run over the blind man to avoid a crash with the gasoline tanker. The reverse is never going to happen.
200 pounds or 80,000 pounds it is clearly the weight it carries that counts. Not to mention how big the boom is.
If somebody tells you don't stick your arm inside, do you listen? If somebody in a wheelchair tells you the same thing, do you listen?
You're confusing credibility with qualification.
This reminds of a question that was on my drivers license test. It went something like this. Which do you give the right away to? A gasoline tanker or a man with a white tipped cane. I said the gasoline tanker. I got the question wrong, the right answer is the man with the white tipped cane. I carefully weighed what would happen if I crashed into both and picked the wrong answer. Today, I still would run over the blind man to avoid a crash with the gasoline tanker. The reverse is never going to happen.
Let me get this straight, they post the most and so they must be experts. Listen carefully to all they have to say and do what they tell you to do. I wish you well, you'll need it.
Let me get this straight, they post the most and so they must be experts. Listen carefully to all they have to say and do what they tell you to do. I wish you well, you'll need it.
Actually they don't, but they are better debaters than you.
You got mentioned in the above post and you being the humble person that you are, did nothing but pat yourself on the back. Just remember that when you put them down, you are in the same class. The world's great debaters.
You got mentioned in the above post and you being the humble person that you are, did nothing but pat yourself on the back. Just remember that when you put them down, you are in the same class. The world's great debaters.
In English "they" means a group apart from "us."
They are better debaters than you.
I am worlds apart from you, but I don't need to pat myself on the back, it's obvious to any reader.
I never said I was great. Thanks for considering me as such. You put me in the same group as them and then separated me. This funny. Keep those sharp witted comebacks coming.
I never said I was great. Thanks for considering me as such. You put me in the same group as them and then separated me. This funny. Keep those sharp witted comebacks coming.
I spent a minute looking over that sentence trying to construe how you misunderstood what I wrote, and if perhaps my English was ambiguous. It wasn't, you need to read it again.
How do know you need surgery? That maybe only one option. Six different so called experts may have six different opinions as to what you need. Are they all experts?