Experts

Specialization

Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1953;

Fragment attributed to the Ancient Greek poet Archilochus: πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα ("a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing").

rEasmus Adagia, 1500, "Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum. "

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Steve SailerFeb 6 Perhaps this could be an objective definition of an expert: An expert is somebody who is usually right about a topic too boring for the average person to have a strong opinion about. For example, most practicing tax lawyers are, under this definition, experts on what the IRS will and won't let you deduct on your 1040. They get the various questions right the great majority of the time. But they seldom get nationally famous for their expertise.

On the other hand, topics that huge numbers of people find interesting, such as who will win the Super Bowl, tend to be ones that are hard to predict. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/webmd-and-the-tragedy-of-legible

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