The ideas in this episode started with a thread on Twitter as my friends Justin Kownacki (of Something To Be Desired) and Michael Bailey (of Mobasoft) were talking about how anyone can be an expert these days, more or less.
Here is a hint on my take on the topic, as usual with a Beach Walks twist: some are more expert at the facts, while others are more expert at the energy.
Hawaiian Word:
Akamai: expert
Be in Touch!
- Subscribe in iTunes so you won’t miss a single episode! Please leave a comment while you’re there!
- Call the Conch line via skype:roxannedarling or 1-949-544-1456 and share your thoughts.
- Like us on Facebook and join the Beach Walks community.
- Our wonderful theme music is from The Ukulele Experiment
haha, “I don’t know what show number it is.” Too many to count huh?
yhis is just more proof of how utterly unscripted we are at Beach Walks! And how “one take wonderful” too. The more time we stop for do-overs, the less time to spend in the water. That swim thing really keeps me on task!
I really enjoyed that “what is an expert?” beach walk. In my business I’ve always sought to be a generalist rather than an expert: good at lots of stuff, rather than just at one thing. It’s a theme I talk about in my new book “Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free” (shameless plug). Writing that book has – I guess – made me an expert on working for yourself. But like Rox says, in the democratisation of expertise, being an expert is not about academia or being an intellectual; it’s about DOING IT! And that’s what success is all about: just do it.
Happy New Year from London…
This has been a growing area of concern for me, particularly in the area of the internet. I enjoy the internet mainly for the social networking with friends and likeminded people, but my distrust for the information that’s on there has been growing. When I was a kid, I found comfort in knowing that if I wanted to know something, I could pick up a volume of an encyclopedia and make a quick reference to a section that I felt had, at the very least, been contributed through a process of testing and verification, but I have very little confidence of this process on the net. Every Joe and Jane posts on the net, whether it be on a forum or sites like Wiki and you have no idea whether they have the slightest clue, whether they are an armchair expert or whether they may actually have a very valid right to post. I’m sure that statement opens up a discussion about who has a right, but simply put: a spade is a spade, I don’t see any interpretation, view or debate – it will never be a fork.
There is no opinion or interpretation, it is what it is and unfortunately the net has a lot of information posted by people that think they know, but often don’t. I think that opening ‘expertise of facts’ (either on or off the net) to interpretation/debate, is risky. It’s different when the subject is ‘Why did this happen?’, ‘What was the purpose of this happening?’, then it has plenty of room for debate, but if this flexibility extends to pure knowledge of fact, that a spade is a spade is a spade, then I loose all faith in everything that I read, see or hear.
This is definitely a timely topic and I am digesting a few more ideas on it for another episode. I’ll try to do this when I am somewhat awake and not completely rolling out of bed one morning. I think it is an indicator topic that speaks to so many other situations that are subject to the disruptions caused by the internet and technology as our world shrinks.