

On Becoming an Expert - loquace
http://30sleeps.com/blog/2009/01/28/becoming-an-expert/

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chris11
Basically the key point of his article was that expertise should be viewed in
terms of measurable goals and objectives. Research now agrees with that view.
Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, one of the world's leading researchers on expertise
has done some interesting research on
this.[http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracti...](http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf)
The pdf mentions some research that showed that plateaus in learning Morse
code were not intrinsic to learning but were dependent on the training methods
used to learn

Research does show that it matters whether you choose to focus on one specific
subset of the activity, or whether you just practice the activity. Deliberate
practice requires that you work with the specific goal of improving a specific
weakness. The fact that benefit from practice starts to decline after two
hours demonstrates the amount of effort required in deliberate practice.

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JayNeely
The post isn't really well structured, but the key points here are:

* Expertise isn't an achievement, it's how we define a certain number or quality of achievements.

* Becoming an expert on a skill is about learning that skill's vocabulary so well that you can express yourself in it as you wish.

* Your metrics for expertise in a skill should be put in terms a non-expert can understand, if you want to be recognized as an expert.

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sh1mmer
I wouldn't agree with this summary. I think he was saying

1) Expertise is relative.

His example included the temporal nature of the "cutting-edge" in computing.
What was consider best practice 10 years ago is no longer considered even ok.

2) Achieve things by setting an actionable next step instead of a goal of
becoming an "expert"

A next step e.g. getting a patch into Rails Core will move you forward, trying
to be an "expert" cause you to do things which make you an expert in the eyes
of others. I.e. you'll work to fulfill the definition in 1)

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ewiethoff
"Experts aren't really experts. They suck at what they do. They just suck a
little bit less than everybody else around them at the time."

Disagree. There are "experts" and there are Experts. Some Ruby on Rails
blogger guy is an "expert"; Plácido Domingo is an Expert.

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sh1mmer
The last paragraph is great

 _"Be less concerned with the adjectives of success–good, great, world-
class–and more concerned with taking a worthwhile next step. The path to
expertise is the path to nowhere in particular. When you get specific, you get
results."_

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irishpolyglot
How do you become an expert? Change your concept of expertise! Another
excellent article from 30sleeps about thinking outside the box to achieve your
goals

