flynn23 wrote:

Just to take this thread into a completely different direction, I'm not sure I agree that subject matter expertise will always be needed and command a premium. What's changing in our world today is the necessity of using these resources for rote tasks.

One of the reasons for this is the explosion of communications tools that allows anyone to quickly get enough information to ape a subject matter expert in many tasks. Another is the expert systems that are proliferating which provide decision support and context to allow someone with minimal subject matter expertise (nay, follow directions?) to accomplish many expert level tasks (see: Nurse Practitioner). And finally, you have the demand side of the equation, which is to say that the market is not wanting to pay people like attorneys thousands of dollars to do things like issue boilerplate text for your living will.

I bring this up because in a lot of ways, being an 'expert' is starting to look like a poor career choice in a lot of fields. Go walk into a Minute Clinic at CVS and see what I mean.

Not such a different direction, actually. I think that you're right... my statement regarding expertise reflect the current state of most areas of endeavor, but certainly not all, and I wouldn't at all suggest that the state of things will remain that way.

I think that expert systems and the vastly increased availability of information will combine to minimize (if not eliminate) the value of knowledge-based experts over the long term. Not so long ago I and some other regulars here were discussing software-aided software design and the eventual state in which special purpose software is generated by other software... there's no fundamental reason this won't work in principle.

I think that it'll be some time before expertise is devalued enough to change the landscape completely. In the meantime, I've always tried to be a generalist, which is comforting in the context of this conversation. At any rate, I tend to pick up the basics of new skills rapidly, but never transcend a certain level of competence (depending on the skill, somewheree between "ok" and "highly competent". I don't consider myself an expert at anything.)

I think it's compelling to find that the most crucial skill from now on may well be the ability to locate, evaluate and organized information. The google-ization of everything, perhaps.

I find it even more interesting to consider the effect this may have on other areas, most specifically, the craft and design of physical objects. If knowledge work eventually puts itself out of business, as it were, will the result be a resurgence of physical skills, which comprise aesthetic and social elements that can't be replicated? One of my many hobbies is woodworking (very amateur at present) which has some fundamental similarities to the creative aspects of my knowledge-based day job, but the end result of which is different in a lot of important ways. That gives me comfort as well.

RE: The People's Law Student: Why am I here?