Member-only story
Why Your ‘Expertise’ Might Be Obsolete
You have gotten bad advice in your life. So have I.
You have also given bad advice. So have I.
Advice is a strange thing; it is contextual.
For example, if you give me advice about something that I don’t know, but you do, that might be good advice, assuming I take it, apply it to my life, and enjoy a benefit from it. But if you give that same “good” advice to someone else, someone who knows even more about the subject than you, that same advice might be “bad” or outdated (you just are not aware that it is).
It’s interesting to think about why bad advice is given. I have identified three possibilities:
1. The advice giver is ignorant, and simply ‘believes’ he is giving you accurate guidance (but is not).
2. The advice giver is malicious, and is intentionally wanting to point you in the wrong direction.
3. The advice giver’s information is outdated.
“When experts are wrong, it’s often because they’re experts on an earlier version of the world.” (Paul Graham)
Focusing on the third reason, I believe this is why we are seeing more and more distance between traditional academics and anyone who lives outside of the academic world.
