becoming an expert (part two)
by Pace on September 20th, 2008 @ 10:42 am in
How To Be Awesome
Tags: empowerment, learning
This is our first time with Kyeli posting part one of a two-part post and me posting the other half. It’s really fun!
Kyeli gave an awesome overview about becoming an expert, and the three points I want to drill down on are:
- confidence
- empowerment
- how to actually do it
Confidence
We’re not advocating lying about your knowledge or your level of expertise. That would be a pretty silly thing for us to advocate, since we’re all about that authentic communication stuff. What we are advocating is learning enough to be confident.
Take, for example, Kyeli’s shoulder and wrist injuries that she incurred when she was hit by a car. We felt overwhelmed and afraid, because the other guy’s insurance company was really mean to Kyeli, and the first attorney we went to was negative and insensitive. We felt like we were all alone, surrounded by tons of people who were either against us or didn’t care about us at all. Since the situation was so stressful for us, we procrastinated for months. Then one day, we had a conversation about it and figured all these things out — we figured out why it was stressing us out so much. And to fix the problem, I became an insurance claims expert. Sure, I’m not the same caliber of expert as someone who’s been on both sides of the claims process, I’m not the same caliber of expert as someone with a law degree, but these things are not as complicated as they’re made out to be. They’re made out to be complicated so that the people who know the things can charge you money. But the point is that I didn’t need to be that high caliber of expert. I only needed to be expert enough to get the job done, to feel confident, and to be empowered.
Empowerment
When you don’t know anything about a particular subject, it’s easy to fall into the victim mentality. “Oh no, bad things are happening to me, and I don’t know what to do about them because I don’t understand what’s going on!” That leads to a vicious circle of negative feedback and beating yourself up. In the case of the auto accident, we felt like victims (in more than the obvious sense of Kyeli being hit by a car) because we felt like everyone was screwing us over. Bad things were happening to us, and we felt powerless to do anything about it. But then when I became an expert in insurance claims, the tables turned. Now that we knew what to do, we were empowered. And the instant we felt empowered instead of feeling like victims, we took action, and stuff started getting done. Not only that, a huge amount of stress was lifted from us! Even if the other guy’s insurance agent tries to rip us off, we know what to do now, and so we’re far less worried than we would be if we were uninformed and unempowered.
How to actually do it
I usually start by googling lots of stuff related to the topic. I open tons of tabs from all 10 of the first page results, and follow any links that look interesting. I write up a report on what I’m learning, because I learn more effectively if I imagine teaching the material to someone else. Writing a report does that for me. Sometimes, that’s enough. Some people flip out at the idea of trusting anything you read on the internet, but if I read it on a bunch of different sources that aren’t obviously copied and pasted from the same place, I’ll usually believe it. If I’m doubtful, I’ll tack on “urban legend” or “false” or “myth” or “hoax” or “better than” to my search string and see if anything comes up.
That’s often not enough, however. To become an insurance claims expert, I paid a hundred bucks to sign up for a web site created by a higher caliber expert. To become a self-publishing expert, I joined the Self-Publishing Yahoo group, and asked a bunch of questions. The people there were very helpful and informative. I also bought and read a couple of books on self-publishing. But by the time I read one of the books, I already knew two-thirds of the material from my web research. I could have practically written that book! The bar to being an expert is far lower than we’re led to believe.
Next time you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed because a bunch of things are happening to you and you don’t understand what’s going on, consider becoming an expert. You’ll feel confident and empowered, you’ll get rid of a bunch of worry and stress, and you’ll get stuff done.
Related posts:
- becoming an expert (part one)
- Sole Proprietorship vs. Partnership vs. LLC vs. S-corporation vs. C-corporation (how I became an expert on different types of companies)
No related posts.
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15 Comments!
#2 Posted by 
Nathan Winant on September 20th, 2008 3:53 pm | link
These are some great posts!
“They’re made out to be complicated so that the people who know the things can charge you money.”
I think that’s an important part of it, but I think it’s a little bit larger. After all, you see this same behavior with, say, bureaucrats who have no direct financial gain from flaunting their expertise.
People make themselves experts to feel empowered, gain status, have validation. If someone puts in a lot of time being an insurance adjuster, they may want to feel like they’ve earned something for that time and effort. They want to feel their life hasn’t been wasted, and they want to feel important/valuable, and both those needs can be fulfilled (to a certain extent) by promoting themselves. A lot of people do it — I do it, and you seem to be doing it here, too.
The difference is what people do with that promotion. Once you become an expert, there are two ways to express that: in relation to the situation/knowledge domain, or in relation to other people.
What some people do with that is to make it out be larger than it is, to discourage others, to make them dependent. “Sure, you can do what I’m doing, but it’ll take you years and years, and I’ll always be ahead of you.”
What some other people do is what you’re doing here, sharing the knowledge and showing that these things are attainable. “Look, I did this, and I can show you how to do it, too. It might be a little work, sure, but it’s totally doable.”
In a way, this is about two very different views of the world. Are you an expert in relation to the situation, or in relation to other people? Does the free flow of information empower you or weaken you? Open source vs. closed source? Are you safer if you pull people up or push them down?
I guess it ultimately boils down to cooperation vs. competition.
#3 Posted by 
Mantic-Angel on September 20th, 2008 6:08 pm | link
It’s interesting that you’re defining “basic familiarity with the topic” as “being an expert” on it – you don’t really seem to be an expert on insurance, just someone who has functional levels of skill.
Linguistics aside though, it is really awesome to hear discussion of how easy these things are to learn. I know a lot of people that are really crippled by fear of learning new things like this, and I’ve found a lot of my success comes from being able to instead do exactly what you’re talking about.
It is interesting thinking about the privilege that goes with this, though, and I actually kept feeling this whole thing was a bit “holier-than-thou” because, often, it’s very difficult to overcome that victim mentality, that fear. It’s not as easy as simply going “gosh, but life would be better if I wasn’t a victim!” I do think knowing how easy it is to learn helps, but it can still be pretty difficult! There’s also situations where getting to do web research and buy a few books on a topic isn’t a big option, but you’re running a website here and I doubt those people are your target audience for this post :D (Most of the problems I faced in my life were back before I had the resources to buy books frivilously like this, before the internet was really such a great resource, and without a lot of access to the local library. I sometimes get a bit jealous when people talk about all those things as though they’re automatic privileges in life. Still, it is really nice to hear reminders that I DO have those resources now!)
#4 Posted by 
Pace on September 20th, 2008 6:39 pm | link
@Nathan: Yes! You’re exactly right that it’s larger. Cooperation vs. competition. Like you said, people make themselves experts to be empowered, and there are two ways you can use that power. It can be power over or power with. Control paradigm vs. connection paradigm!
@Mantic Angel: The reason I use the term “expert” instead of “basic familiarity with the topic” is that it helps me feel more confident. I realize that sometimes it makes me seem like I’m overblowing myself, so I often translate to a different term when talking with others. When talking with myself and Kyeli, though, I like “expert” as it’s a very empowering and reinforcing term for me that effectively banishes my victim attitude.
You’re totally right, it can indeed be very hard to overcome the victim mentality. In fact, I think it’s one of the hardest things ever. It’s such a self-reinforcing paradigm that it can be really difficult to break out of its gravity well. I’m not trying to imply that it’s easy, just that it’s possible.
#5 Posted by Mantic-Angel on September 20th, 2008 7:20 pm | link
Perhaps the phrase “skilled” would be a good balance between confidence and clarity of communication? Admittedly my brain doesn’t seem as wired for “positive phrasing” like that, so I don’t get the appeal :)
#6 Posted by Nathan Winant on September 20th, 2008 7:27 pm | link
Along the lines of what you’re saying, Pace & Mantic-Angel:
A term I like is “competency.” I like to know that, for a given knowledge domain, I can sit down and, perhaps with a bit of effort, become *competent.* It’s like driving: I don’t need to be a professional race car driver to feel in control, I just need enough knowledge and practice to get around comfortably and have some fun. At the same time, knowing I have the ability to acquire competency gives me confidence that, at least in many areas, I could become an expert (in the conventional sense) if I really wanted to.
And, in most areas, I *don’t* want to be an expert. “Expert” implies specialization (at least to me) and there are often many other ways I’d rather spend my time.
There can actively be downsides to being considered an expert. For example, in many workplaces I’ve found that once you become branded an expert in a given technology, people try to push all of the work related to that technology onto you. Now, if that technology is your passion and you really want to specialize in it, that’s probably pretty nice, so long as you don’t wind up getting taken advantage of. But if (like me, typically) you find that technology to be only one of *several* interesting technologies (or worse, if you don’t really care for it) it can be a royal PITA.
Likewise, it can play weird head games with people. If people perceive you as an expert and then ask you something you don’t know, they may wind up believing that thing is much more difficult than it is, or they may judge you as being overbilled and question your competency.
Ah, language.
#7 Posted by Pace on September 20th, 2008 10:38 pm | link
I like “skilled”. I really like “competent”. I’ll use those when I translate the “expert” in my head to the outside world. (:
#8 Posted by Nathan Winant on September 20th, 2008 11:16 pm | link
Glad to help!
Like Mantic-Angel said: hair-splitting about vocabulary aside, this is *great* stuff.
#9 Posted by 
EnderVR on September 21st, 2008 12:07 am | link
Expert, as Nathan above puts it, implies specialization and is defined as such in most common dictionary’s. Socially, It carries a tone of superiority (or pomp) when used to define oneself, and may even cause some people to ignore your message altogether.
This is, of course, just my take. But as I see it, when someone calls themselves an expert in a given field I’m going to hold them to a higher scrutiny than if they had just claimed to be proficient (or skilled, competent, passionate, etc). On the other hand, if someone I trust tells me that someone is an expert at something I will take their word for it. Silly, I know, but such is the way of things.
It goes back to what Pace and Nathan brought up originally. Usually, when someone claims themselves expert at something, they’re seeking empowerment. Which instantly makes me question their motive. Are the looking to be paid? Are they looking for power? Are they delusional? It may be none of the above, but it’s my first perception.
It’s all in the accepted definition really, and English is an ever changing language, but I feel the use of expert without specialization is awkward.
“But the point is that I didn’t need to be that high caliber of expert. I only needed to be expert enough to get the job done, to feel confident, and to be empowered.”
This clears up the claim, but is flawed. If expert is specialization, and specialization is the pursuit of one study. Than being an expert isn’t just knowing enough to get the job done.
That being said, not all accepted experts are in fact specialists. Do we stick with the strict definition, or do we evolve the language?
#10 Posted by Pace on September 21st, 2008 12:17 am | link
Tony,
No matter what words I use, they’ll be interpreted differently by different people. Just look at how each person in the comments perceives something different when I say “expert”. They perceive different meanings for the word itself, and they make different guesses at what my intent might be when I use that word.
I think the best solution in this case, since “expert” is a loaded (maybe even triggery) word for a lot of people, is to only use that particular word in my own head and to Kyeli, and to translate it into “competent” or “skilled” or something less likely to cause those sorts of reactions when I’m talking to others.
The point we were trying to make in our posts was about how it feels to become an expert (or competent, or skilled, or whatever) at something, and how awesome it can be for you, not about how you present yourself to others.
#11 Posted by EnderVR on September 21st, 2008 12:25 am | link
The point of the posts were clear and precise. I was only commenting on the comments. Words mean different things to different people and perception is tricky. Why bow down to that when you can change it through communication?
This isn’t a set language and it’s beauty is in its versatility.
#12 Posted by 
_rck_ on September 21st, 2008 9:34 am | link
I hope you would agree that you are an expert in F/HOL inference in a way that you are not for insurance claims. Should the delta between these two notions not give a moment of pause?
The power derived from tagging your own competence in a particular problem domain as expert-level seems to come at the cost of semantic ambiguity and potentially even lying to yourself about your knowledge; something you stated early on was not the point.
I am all for the insights into and the criticisms against the power games underlying the cognitive filter systems that keep the poor from attaining the medical cost reimbursements that they are entitled to. Breaking through that wall makes one feel better, no doubt. Maybe the term “bureaucratic conqueror” would be more appropriate for that sentiment, though.
#13 Posted by 
Oliver Danni on September 26th, 2008 7:08 am | link
It is interesting to hear how many people associate “specialization” with “expertise”. To me that sounds like a belief that if one is an expert at something, that limits the person from being an expert at other things, and even from doing other things that one is not an expert at.
I’m not an expert, though, so I don’t know much about expertise. ;-)
#14 Posted by 
Tanya on November 1st, 2008 9:45 am | link
just wanted to say, _rck_, that “Bureaucratic Conqueror” is a great description and, coincidentally, would make a great name for a band. :)
#15 Posted by 
Carlota on January 23rd, 2009 9:03 pm | link
I can totally relate to doing research to fix a problem, and then suddenly find that you are an expert on how to solve that problem, even though your expertise is limited to just “that one thing I resolved”.
Thank you for reminding us all that through our personal experiences, we have something to share with those who find themselves in similar snafus!
I think the word “expert” can be intimidating, especially to those of us who are perfectionists and minimize what we actually know. It’s also a broad term and doesn’t account for the many levels of knowledge, wisdom, and mastery. Even as a beginner, you can find yourself knowing a few more things than someone who hasn’t even begun yet or doesn’t know where to start.
@Tanya, Your comment was SO funny I was rolling over with laughter!
#1 Posted by
Megan M. on September 20th, 2008 12:22 pm | link
GUYS. These posts. Are so. Freaking. Good.
Just sayin. O.O
Have a nice day.