Experts Aren't Always Right

Sometimes good decisions have bad results, too. Good experts have a higher proportion of good answers than lay persons.

And if they don't do better than laymen, they're better at explaining why.

my question has more to do with such things as blind spots. Sometimes people can be such experts they fail to see what IS, and see what WAS or what they want it to be. For example, automotive experts at Ford predicted success for the Edsel.

Sometimes experts in the wrong fields are consulted.

The Edsel example, as you presented it, is a great case. Asking an automotive engineering expert would give you a very different result from asking a marketing expert or an advertising expert. Asking someone who knows what consumers are interested in is different than asking an automotive engineer if a vehicle is well-designed or well-built mechanically.

Closer, but I'm thinking about things like Not Listening, Hubris, Perceptual Blind Spots and the like, and was hoping some expert had a list of Shortcomings of Experts

Are there no experts in The Shortcomings of Experts?

That's true in all fields of human endeavor.

From what you seem to be asking, the answer is very simple, it's human error.

Of course we all know what an expert is .....
X is an unknown quantity
A spurt is a drip under pressure .

Amen

Having had that phrase used against me in numerous public meetings where the public was against the side I worked for, I can tell you that
EXPERT is defined a s

X= a Has been ,

SPERT= a drip under pressure.

So I was a has been scientist and a drip under pressure. Depending on the audience I either had to bite my tongue or, else I could go for the jugular.



I only wanna say that I am certainly glad for all the economics experts we have that have helped me in this trying economic time


(NOT)

How can "x" equal "has been?" "x" is an unknown quantity until other "conditions" are included in the "formula." Isn't it?

well, its actually "ex"--"Spurt".

I was being too shortcutty.

There is something to the idea that experts have blind spots. Social workers, for example, deal with a lot of dysfunctional people. When they are confronted with a perfectly normal person, they may make negative presumptions about the normal person.

d2v2n wrote :



you better watch what you are saying or you be declared "an expert on The Shortcomings of Experts " - whether you like it or not .
and what are YOUR answers going to be ?
hbg

What qualifies a person to be an expert ?
Who bestows that title upon them ?
Are they self appointed ?
How come you can find "experts" with totally opposing views ?
Do we have any experts that can answer the above questions ?
Thank you in anticipation .