Beware of "Experts"

I was reading the NY Times business section this morning and read a piece by G. Pascal Zachary entitled “Genius and Misfit Aren’t Synonyms, or Are They?

The article looks at so-called “misfits” who turn out to be technological innovators” (like Bill Gates) who succeed by “resenting and resisting established authority and its prejudices”. In other words, only by literally “attacking” established paradigms can we open the way to “new theories, new facts, new technologies“.

A particular dictum attributed to Andrew Grove of Intel caught my eye:

“When everyone says that something is true, be very skeptical, Mr. Grove advised. Question the obvious.”

This brought to mind a similar lesson I got from my first boss nearly 20 years ago - “Beware of Experts”.

This boss was always skeptical of vendors, employees and consultants who held themselves out as “experts“. He hated that word. It was too high of a standard, and too rigid to boot.

I now understand that he too was a “misfit” who knew all too well that being too “locked in” to a point of view, discipline or theory was dangerous business. I can vividly recall meetings we had with consultants who dared throw out the “expert” label – it almost always disqualified them right then and there.

At the time I just thought he didn’t like the “ego” part of declaring oneself an expert (since he had a pretty big one of his own and didn’t like to be upstaged), but the benefit of time and more experience on my part has made me realize the true point he was trying to make.

It is basically very similar to Grove’s dictum – when someone claims to know everything there is to know about something, or defends established paradigms as absolute truths, we should be wary and proceed with caution.

Otherwise, the misfits in us can’t come out to play, and what a pity that would be.