The "curse of expertise" can condemn us to recite what we're comfortable with, to feel altogether too smug about our familiarity with the landscape, and to unconsciously disarm our mental defenses against cant, or worse--to arm to the hilt our mental defenses against unconventional thinking. It can also lead to thinking and behaving only for the benefit of those presumably already initiated into the particular inner circle of expertise....
While researching some statutes about the beginning of November I realized that I was mistaken in my memory of one particular statute. Yeah, what you think you know can hurt you. Well, actually, embarrass one's self. Which lead me to changing how I selected articles for my Indiana Divorce & Family Law Blog and soon for this blog.
Rex Stout put into Nero Wolfe's mouth something along the lines that inertia is the strongest force in the world. We all dig our own professional ruts. I can say as of now that blogging has probably made me take a harder look at my conventional wisdom. I suggest any of my peers reading this take a look at the blogroll - the list of links - get out and about on the Internet. Things are happening out there. Ideas have no great boundaries of space and time. I will agree with Mr. Friedman's flat earth theory to that extent. More importantly, no longer can any class claim a toll on access to those ideas. At the same, distinguishing between information and knowledge is something the general public must learn and that there is value in knowledge. Let me make a facile analogy, just because I know what a rotor cap is does not mean I can rebuild an automobile engine.
Meanwhile, best wishes for the new year.
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