Relying on Experts When They May Not Exist–Many Intelligent and Smart People But Do We Have Misconceived Paradigms-TED

I thought this was a well thought out presentation and difficult to give no less too.I feel she does make some very good points as what and who we designate as experts and wealth is not always the dividing line here, like we sometimes think it may be. Decision making is getting harder as we all have more alternatives and sources of information that we didn’t have a few years ago. We still believe that experts are able to come to better conclusions than we can and that may not always be the case,although they can add input. The parental guiding of the “expert” can be dangerous she states as we get stuck in old paradigm. She feels we have become addicted to “experts” and their opinions.

The independent source within our brain sometimes switches off when listening to the “expert” as again it has been what we have done for years. Medical and financial experts get it wrong, and we can look at Wall Street for the financial example as I really don’t probably need to mention. How much faith do we put in economists, and she states she is one of these herself. Experts also command huge chunks of money too. She states there’s a bit of danger with not being ready and willing to take experts on, in other words ask questions and don’t believe everything you may be told at all times. We want explanations in languages that we can understand. She mentions Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt believes in this philosophy and again allows others to offer their information and advice. Once you listen to this you may have an entire different opinion of what the “expert paradigm” is. We certainly know they don’t exist in any form in Congress today if you want to take a pot shot as what we deal with today <grin>.

Of course this has direct healthcare impact as this is what we are trying to do with getting patients involved in our own healthcare. Uncertainty and doubt too is something we all live with today and is becoming an uncomfortable norm. BD

Smart decisions often require considering the advice smart people — that is, experts.

But according to economist Noreena Hertz, relying too much on them can be limiting — or even dangerous

Why we rely too much on experts - SmartPlanet