I haven't trusted "the experts" in 10 years!
The surprising reason: crypto 👀
I've been using crypto for 12 years (as my daily money for almost 10), covered the space as a journalist and content creator for 10, and worked in business development and partnerships for 6.
Despite not being a coder, I'm pretty obviously a subject matter expert. I've been deeply involved 75% of the time the tech has even existed.
So I know better than almost anyone that most crypto "experts" are dead wrong ~90% of the time!
And I'm not talking about clueless influencers here. I'm talking about actual experts: people with deep technical knowledge, many of whom actually helped create the very tech we're using!
The "expert consensus" has been proven wrong about almost every major thing:
- "Crypto can't scale on-chain"🚫WRONG
- "L2 scaling is the way forward"🚫WRONG
- "The Lightning Network is good tech"🚫WRONG
- "Hard forks are dangerous" 🚫WRONG
- "Bitcoin will hit X price at Y time"🚫WRONG
After seeing legitimate expert consensus wrong about so many critical, major issues, it got me thinking: which other experts are lying or wrong?
Mixed martial arts proved traditional martial arts "experts" were wrong on what worked and what didn't. Healthcare experts (especially in 2020) were dead wrong (and those who weren't were censored). Political experts were wrong on many recent elections.
Now, this is not an encouragement to discard expertise. Even the experts who are wrong still base their wrong conclusions on real information. So please, base your criticisms on expertise.
If you come at the king, you'd best not miss!
But how do I find experts to trust?
- VERIFY CLAIMS!
If possible, actually verify what experts are talking about. Check their sources to the best of your abilities, and see if what they're saying makes sense.
- TRUST EXPERTS WHO CHANGE THEIR MIND!
No one has perfect knowledge. People make up their minds given current evidence, and as new evidence presents itself, opinions must change. "Experts" who become attached to one position, even if the evidence changes, can't be trusted.
- TRUST NUANCE!
Facts are black and white, conclusions are not. Concluding X is better than Y for all use cases and contexts, without nuance, is a sign of a lack of critical thinking, or of deception and malice.
As always, think for yourself and critically evaluate expert opinion. Stop worshiping pedigree.