Shifts happen subtly, don't they? I still remember when iPhones were first released and being so excited to have all this capacity in one device. I may be aging myself, but I don't like that we are all attached to our phones. I'm the odd one that leaves my phone in my purse in appointment waiting rooms or anywhere that people are. I'd like to tell you that people look at me strangely like I must be this poor soul that can't afford a phone, but honestly not many people notice because their heads are all down in their own digital world. We lost those short, kind, in person conversations with strangers. Sorry, lost in a tangent. My point is that when we got those phones, we didn't know what was going to happen to our society. It was a subtle shift.
This made me ponder when people stopped sharing their wisdom and skills and started to believe that they needed to be an expert in something to sell it, or teach it, or give guidance to others. I remember being able to ask people, how did you do that, would you be willing to share your process, and they would happily tell you!
But something shifted. We started to preface our guidance or opinions with "I'm sure you already know this," or "other people know much more about this than I do," or "I'm not the best...." With so much technology at our fingertips, we assume that people know more than they do. And so we hesitate. We don't want to look dumb, as if they are all going to reply, Ya duh, I just thought you were doing this a better way.
“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” -Maurice Switzer
And yet at the same time, we have this other louder group that bellows advice without any real knowledge on the topic at all. You can tell as soon as they start talking that they don't know what they're talking about. But they want to feel relevant so they speak up about things they haven't experienced themselves.
And I think that's where people get stuck. They don't want to come off as someone who hasn't put in the work to be an expert on the topic but they are humble enough to know that there likely are people that have more experience or expertise.
“Experts were once amateurs who kept practicing.” -Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
Can we just acknowledge that you don't have to be an expert in something to have insight valuable enough to share. My son graduated with a degree in Networking and Cyber Security, yet when he got to his first professional job- they said, uh no....we're doing it this way. They didn't care about his fancy degree that said he was now an expert.
You can be knowledgeable about something and still have room to learn more. Just to be clear, I am in the camp that knows that I have a lot to learn, and I'm humble enough to say "this is what I've learned so far, but there may be a better or different way."
But still.... not an expert.
Warmest regards,
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