Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "advisers"
Expert-ism
This morning at breakfast, my husband and I were discussing experts. The news is full of stories about what one expert or another says should be done about taxes, education, crime, oil spills, you-name-it. While I am willing to listen, not considering myself to be an expert on any of those topics, I respect most of all the person who thinks for himself. I strive to be one of those people.
History is a great teacher, neglected by many. The advice of experts of other times now seems downright awful. The idea of putting powdered dog feces in the eyes of a person with vision problems is an example that springs to mind. We might think, "But we're more scientific now." I'm sure every generation has thought of itself as more enlightened than earlier ones, but consider how many mistakes medical experts have made just in our lifetimes. (Don't bother trying to count the mistakes of policitians!)
Experts are often people steeped in the dogma of the time, perhaps so much so that they cannot think outside conventional thought. As an expert spends years getting educated to the point of being recognized as an expert, he is immersed in accepted practice for so long that it must be hard to think independently, not to mention to step away from what one's colleagues believe and practice. Experts are also people, meaning that they have innate prejudices and collected experiences that make them see things in a particular way. My years as a teacher, for example, make it hard for me to accept concepts like No Child Left Behind, a nice idea created by experts who do not deal with day-to-day classroom situations.
The world of books and publishing is by no means lacking experts. Experts advise us on how to write, how to query, how to promote, and how to brand. But the experts are often no better than the rest of us at predicting who will succeed and who will fail.
I'm no expert, but I do as my grandmother used to advise me, "Listen to what they say, and then think whatever you like."
History is a great teacher, neglected by many. The advice of experts of other times now seems downright awful. The idea of putting powdered dog feces in the eyes of a person with vision problems is an example that springs to mind. We might think, "But we're more scientific now." I'm sure every generation has thought of itself as more enlightened than earlier ones, but consider how many mistakes medical experts have made just in our lifetimes. (Don't bother trying to count the mistakes of policitians!)
Experts are often people steeped in the dogma of the time, perhaps so much so that they cannot think outside conventional thought. As an expert spends years getting educated to the point of being recognized as an expert, he is immersed in accepted practice for so long that it must be hard to think independently, not to mention to step away from what one's colleagues believe and practice. Experts are also people, meaning that they have innate prejudices and collected experiences that make them see things in a particular way. My years as a teacher, for example, make it hard for me to accept concepts like No Child Left Behind, a nice idea created by experts who do not deal with day-to-day classroom situations.
The world of books and publishing is by no means lacking experts. Experts advise us on how to write, how to query, how to promote, and how to brand. But the experts are often no better than the rest of us at predicting who will succeed and who will fail.
I'm no expert, but I do as my grandmother used to advise me, "Listen to what they say, and then think whatever you like."
