How to Become an "Expert"

I had a sudden realization yesterday when I was viewing a video presentation from Chris Kesser about cholesterol, the ways we measure it, what the important numbers are, and what is relative nonsense.

I listened for a while, but soon learned that Chris was an acupuncturist and an integrated medicine practitioner. I found myself discounting what he said because of his credentials.

But then I thought - what a hypocrite! Chris is doing this because he has a passion for it. And he has earned the respect of thousands by being outspoken about what he's learned. And what he's learned is how to become an expert in a field that interests him.

So that's the paradigm we're living in today.

Anyone can become an expert, or at least well-informed, about any topic that interests them if they are willing to invest a few weeks or months worth of research. You don't need a degree from MIT to know what you're talking about. You do need more than 30 minutes of Google searches.

I now consider myself well on the way to being an expert in the insomnia and sleep deprivation field, not because I wanted to, but because I found myself thrust into this confusing world. And with absolutely no information about it - I had to go find it myself. I now feel comfortable jumping in to conversations about "benzodiazapine withdrawal" and "central sleep apnea" - terms I never knew existed before.

Similarly, I thought myself relatively knowledgeable about vegetarianism when I drove down that road seventeen years ago. Too bad that most of the information that was available to me was pseudo-science, passed off as real science, by every "expert" I found.

This time around, with the low-grain/low-dairy/low-legume diet (Paleo - but I hate that term), I find myself being much more diligent in the research - looking for contrary positions on everything I read. If the contrary position doesn't stand up, it's discarded. And often it doesn't stand up. I wish there was a contrary position in 1995.

The information available to us today can be overwhelming. And often people will say (especially about diets) that information keeps changing - what's good for us one week is bad for us the next. But that's the nature of science.

If you can look at everything through skeptical lenses (skeptical being a good term - look it up), then you begin to appreciate the process. It's only when that process is "managed", as it was in the 90's, that we get into trouble.

Good thing for us that the process can't be handled anymore, unless you get everything you know from the evening news.

Viva la informacion!