[frankplow]

This post treats being an expert as an unambiguously good thing. Richard Hamming's essay Experts has a bit more of a nuanced take on the topic. He talks how paradigm shifts in fields often come from outsiders, while at the same time acknowledging how increasing complexity neccessitates specialisation. I suppose Hamming's essay focuses on scientific and social gain, whereas this post focuses on personal gain.

[ahazred8ta]

> paradigm shifts often come from outsiders

There were two execs on a plane. "My company makes hard drives. We polish metal plates and try to put a thin metal coating on them, but our tolerances are mediocre." "Oh? My company makes telescope mirrors. We polish glass optically flat and lay down coatings measured in nanometers." "Oh, man, we've got to talk some more." Boom, Seagate.

[skmurphy]

This for mentioning this, I found an audio of the talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWNBzAgAiMc

Update I know see that this is taken from Chapter 26 "Experts" in Hamming's "Art and Science of doing engineering"