149
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by essell@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

The internet has made a lot of people armchair experts happy to offer their perspective with a degree of certainty, without doing the work to identify gaps in their knowledge. Often the mark of genuine expertise is knowing the limitations of your knowledge.

This isn't a social media thing exclusively of course, I've met it in the real world too.

When I worked as a repair technician, members of the public would ask me for my diagnosis of faults and then debate them with me.

I've dedicated the second half of my life to understanding people and how they work, in this field it's even worse because everyone has opinions on that topic!

And yet my friend who has a physics PhD doesn't endure people explaining why his theories about battery tech are incorrect because of an article they read or an anecdote from someone's past.

So I'm curious, do some fields experience this more than others?

If you have a field of expertise do you find people love to debate you without taking into account the gulf of awareness, skills and knowledge?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It varies, I think the most important part for any kind of online discussion is to establish credibility based on the argument not credibility based on title or degree.

It's also important to recognize a challenge on its own merits. I don't care if you flip burgers at Wendy's, if you can argue a point on the merits I'll hear you out (and try to politely explain why you're wrong -- in understandable language -- if needed).

I hate the "trust me bro I'm a X, it's an elite field, it would take years to explain this to you and you wouldn't even understand anyways" attitude some professionals take. The real experts that I've met and I respect can simplify the subject matter they're an expert of (to be digestible and reasonable to most people) and I aspire to be that insightful.

[-] essell@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

That's totally fair, I agree.

The version that upsets me most is when I offer a perspective from my expertise, well founded and reasonable, and rather than ask questions to understand or offer a competing idea, people so often just say that I must be an idiot and know nothing about the topic.

I can hardly reply with "no, you're the stupid one!" coz that just really doesn't help.

[-] bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There are serious limits to this. We can’t discount title/degree because you can’t possibly be able to accurately assess the credibility of every argument.

If a doctor shows me a picture and says “you have cancer, here’s the tumor,” I’m going to probably take that at face value. Because I can’t assess the imaging like they/their technician can, which I am basing off their credentials.

[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Any doctor worth their salt is going to be able to answer the question "how do you know that?" way better than "I just do" or "I have a medical degree" and that's the point; I've yet to find a problem space where that isn't the case. I don't try to win arguments by waiving my credentials around and I don't expect people to take my for "my word" just because of my credentials.

There are plenty of people with titles and fancy degrees that are not worth listening to, like the Ohio doctor (that somehow recently got her medical license back) that claimed the COVID vaccine was making people magnetic, Dr. Oz, etc.

Put another way, do you trust the alleged internet licensed electrician that says a ground wire makes you safer but can't explain why, the alleged internet licensed electrician that says a ground wire is worthless, or the person that says "fuck who I am, ground wires are important because they allow tying things like a metal mixer's body to an incomplete circuit, so that if the metal becomes electrified the circuit is instantly completed and the breaker trips. Alternatively, the circuit becomes completed when you touch the metal and you might die before the breaker trips. If you don't have a ground you can protect humans with a GFCI which detects current loss at the outlet and cuts the power locally. However, a GFCI may not detect some situations that a ground wire would resolve, like an arc that makes use of a grounded portion of the appliance and may generate enough heat to start a fire. AFCIs have been created to help detect this situation. However, both GFCI and AFCI can fail and thus a ground wire is still a useful backup option that also has value for some sensitive electronics."?

Most professionals aren't going to volunteer all of that, but many will volunteer more and more if challenged/questioned.

For reference, my background is in Software Engineering but my father is an electrician at a factory, and a good friend of mine is a forensic electrical engineer. I have no formal credentials in electrical engineering ... but I do know a fair bit about the what and why ... because I have been inquisitive, I've questioned the experts that I've come across to understand their field and learned from them.

[-] bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I didn’t say they go “just trust me” and we both know plenty of people can’t assess even a good explanation.

this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
149 points (96.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26672 readers
1315 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS