
Coding Horror: Are You An Expert? - Anon84
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001226.html
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moxy
I've found in my experience that (many, not all) self-proclaimed "experts" do
tend to grossly overestimate the capabilities and competence, and will impede
those who are more capable than them for fear that they will diminish the
value of their "expert" status. I feel this article is correct in stating that
the appropriate way to approach a problem is from the perspective of an
amateur, as amateurs typically have little fear of abiding by rules that have
congealed within the minds of the "experts", and are more willing to take the
chance of being wrong when success is imminent.

As they say, "an expert is someone who has made the greatest possible number
of mistakes in their field."

~~~
litewulf
I remember reading about a study where people who are below average at a task
tended to rate themselves as competent (or better than average) for that task,
while more competent people wold under-rate themselves.

There are all sorts of possible explanations (don't know enough to know you
suck, pride, etc) and I don't think the study really looked at causality at
all, but yes, I think the phenomenon is well known.

~~~
dcminter
The study you're thinking of is probably "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How
Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-
Assessments" - it's completely fascinating and slightly worrying.

<http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf>

If you're not feeling humble about your skills after reading it, well...

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swombat
_It troubles me greatly to hear that people see me as an expert or an
authority, and not a fellow amateur._

Don't worry, Jeff! No one here thinks you're an expert.

~~~
Retric
Anyone can talk about software, some people can even give useful advice, but
there are patterns which define a true expert:

Experts know how to find a useful solution in known time. This does not mean
they can instantly come up with the best solution just that they already know
a solution and how long that solution will take.

Most experts are willing to try new things up until the point where they will
not get it down in time and then fall back to the known solution.

It might not seem like much but it's amazing how much talent and experience it
takes to get to that point. What messes with most people is training does not
create experts you need to do it without a safety net to really know. And
experts don't necessarily know how to teach they can just get things done.

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swombat
Why are you replying this to me? What does it have to do with my point?

~~~
Retric
I was agreeing with, and I thought I should say why I felt that way. (I also
just edited the post for clarity.)

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raganwald
_This anti-expert bias seems strangely familiar. Almost as if... The last
eight years... Were a bad dream..._

He goes on to say he really has an anti- _self-proclaimed_ -expert bias. A
safe target, nobody likes a smug know-it-all. But sometimes the self-
proclaimed expert _is_ an expert. How do we know if we admit to being
amateurs? We don't know, of course, but the odds are we should listen to
people who demonstrate expertise and not dismiss them because they come off as
smug or claim to have expertise.

Imagine, for a moment, Jeff was talking about Linus Torvalds. Or perhaps Paul
Graham. How would you take this post?

This comes off as being worthy of the last administration: Pandering to
people's prejudices and distrust of anyone who comes across as smart.

p.s. Does anybody else think this is just a continuation of his bashing people
like Kent Beck and Robert Martin for daring to try to systematize agile
software development with anything m,ore complex than Jeff's four rules?

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gaius
_It troubles me greatly to hear that people see me as an expert or an
authority, and not a fellow amateur._

I can't believe this from someone who set out to create a widely-read blog.

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ewiethoff
Steve McQueen's character is exactly the expert fire chief I want in my
towering inferno, and Rick Rescorla
([http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810315-3,0...](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810315-3,00.html))
is exactly the expert security chief I want.

~~~
ewiethoff
Continuation because noprocrast locked me out awhile: As pointed out in Jeff's
article, McQueen's character knows what questions to ask. And per _The
Unthinkable_ [ISBN 0307352897], Rescorla knew what mistakes people were likely
to make. An expert can anticipate problems and raise good questions.

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tome
It sounds like he thinks he's an expert on what being an expert means.

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dmh2000
in my organization, anyone who advertises their own credentials, especially a
PhD, had better be very very good or that person will be ridiculed
mercilessly.

