Expertise Matters, Opinions Are Easy
Now more than ever, respecting expertise and considering our opinions before pushing an agenda may be critical to our short- and long-term survival and success. It troubles me greatly when people make blanket statements like, “you can’t trust the media,” or “experts are often wrong,“ or “you don’t know who to believe anymore.” This simply isn’t true. There are still many reliable objective information resources available. It’s almost as if people have decided not to accept what they don’t want to believe. Or, even worse, they don’t want to do the work to form an educated opinion. Being ignorant or lazy is not a commendable trait.
I respect expertise. Committing one’s life and career to a public service profession is admirable. No one becomes a thought leader or expert overnight. It takes decades of demanding work and study to claim this mantle. What I have little respect for are social media rabble-rousers and talking heads, who often lack a deep understanding and speak as if their opinions carry equal weight to those who genuinely know something about a topic. They should ask clarifying questions and seek to understand before pushing an agenda. The number of present-day pundits who talk over more knowledgeable guests is not only alarming but dangerous. Corresponding Twitter attacks are even more irksome.
While it’s acceptable to hold a strong opinion, the adage “you aren’t entitled to your own facts” applies. There is no such thing as alternative facts. When an adult starts muttering this nonsense, they instantly assume a childlike intellectual status in my mind. Such an assessment may not even be fair to children, who at least typically have an innate curiosity to learn more about the world around them. Your feelings don’t make something true, even if you want it to be. An adult mind can separate fact from self-imposed fiction.
Yes, fields do advance, and new material does become known. The scientific method does not claim to foster infallibility. It simply motivates us to undertake the rigorous work of testing our assumptions within a framework designed to yield the best results. As knowledge in each field advances, so does our understanding of what we truly comprehend. This progress is beneficial. The keyword is “progresses.” The objective is to never go backward in our thinking. We can’t already know what is not yet known. However, we can refine our thinking by formulating educated hypotheses and applying scientific rigor to evaluate them. We need to leverage expertise, not resist it!
When it comes to the coronavirus, let us let the pandemic and public health experts guide the discussion. There appears to be a genuine consensus among them regarding what we are dealing with and how to address it. When it comes to managing the economic consequences of the COVID-19 fallout, let us have the true macro- and microeconomists explain the impact of various scenarios. Our Fed Chairman might be a good place to start. Ph.D. Economists may not always agree with one another, but let us listen to their debate and consider the accuracy of their past predictions. We can also assemble panels of successful long-term CEOs to inform us about the business implications of economic decision-making. Lastly, it would be helpful to heed the expertise and guidance of biomedical ethics experts and other acknowledged philosophical thinkers on the moral implications of our decision-making. We are currently facing life-or-death decision-making consequences. Public policy leaders are facing challenging decisions. The way people use the term ‘herd immunity’ is quite disturbing. People aren’t just statistics, especially when they reside in vulnerable populations.
I am aware of my narrow area of expertise, which lies in the fields of leadership development and, to a lesser extent, business strategy. I am comfortable that the decades spent honing my perspective in this field are of some value. I have some thoughts about the current leadership, but I’ll save that for another post. I have been cautious about sharing my views on the current pandemic environment because they are only imperfectly formed opinions, and this is a serious matter that warrants deference to hard-earned wisdom. Instead, I have shared information from reputable resources that may help us laymen become better informed. I am grateful that so many thoughtful and experienced professionals are contributing to the dialogue. I am confident that they will work together to help us find our way through this tragedy.
Yes, I still believe in the NIH, the CDC, the WHO, and the medical schools at Johns Hopkins and Harvard when it comes to public health issues, certainly more so than Tucker Carlson or Chris Cuomo. The only thing most medical doctors and scientists want right now is a practical, scalable solution to our crisis that minimizes the loss of human life. On the contrary, most prime-time media personalities and op-ed journalists exist to present a scripted perspective that is palatable to a targeted audience. Their goal is to drive ratings and sell content rather than presenting the truth objectively. When something is paid for, it typically comes at a cost.
Before posting a strong opinion or forwarding an article on a subject about which you know little, think it through first. Don’t trust someone who has limited experience with the topic and always tells you what you want to hear. If they make the person who disagrees with their opinion the enemy, then they discount their analysis. If they talk over experts, ignore them in return. If they always provide argument-friendly statistics, then check their validity. Far too many people are sharing incorrect information that doesn’t pass even the most basic test of scrutiny.
What’s sad about all of this is that we do have good, reliable data. There are experts who are honest when they don’t know the answer (imagine that). Some esteemed organizations and institutions have spent considerable time and money exploring their knowledge missions and identifying who disseminates useful information. Let’s all take a step back, let the experts do their jobs, seek understanding first before wielding the social media hammer, push our public officials to elevate our discourse, and be more humble in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Expertise matters! Opinions are easy and often dangerous.
