This is a guest post from Amanda DiSilvestro.
Most people agree that it takes a long time to really reach expert status, but how long does it take to lose it? Is expert status something that comes and goes, or do you have it forever? After all, being an expert means knowing everything you can about a particular craft, no matter how specific. You could be an expert Apple pie maker, and expert business owner, or a social media expert, but what if you quit?
Can something that takes so long to earn be taken away so quickly?
Two Ways To Lose Expert Status
This led me to consider the two types of milestones that can be lost in the blink of an eye:
- Someone who has a type of physical achievement. You may work your whole life to get in shape and finish that triathlon, but the minute you give up your superman cardiovascular endurance will quite right along with you.
- Someone who has a type of mental achievement. You may work your entire life as an accountant, but if you give it up to live the life of a golfer, how will your math skills hold up? Anything that involves your mind needs to stay sharp and be practiced if it’s going to last.
Not only can you lose knowledge because you have given up, but you can lose knowledge because of age. As people grow older, it’s hard to stay on top of the times and do things that were once easier to a young body and a young mind.
Do You No Longer Consider These People Experts?
This analysis seemed a bit negative, so I think it helps to consider some popular figures who fell into one of the above categories:
- Albert Einstein is an expert mathematician, yet his theory of special relativity will likely be proved wrong. Not only is he slowly being proved wrong, but some scientists of today are even calling him, in so many words, “clueless.”
- Paul McCartney is considered an expert songwriter, yet his most recent album did not get near the praise he got when he was a Beatle.
- Bruce Jenner is considered an expert runner, yet now he is more famous and well-known for being the step-father of Kim Kardashian.
So did these people lose their expert status? When their bodies give up, their ideas are proven wrong, or their talent only lasts for so long, are they no longer worthy of the title “expert?” I say absolutely NOT.
Once you have the title expert, you have that title. An expert doesn’t mean being perfect, it simply means that at one time or another you were exceptional in your field. While some people may fall into the “used to be an expert” category; the title is still associated with that name. It shouldn’t matter whether or not someone comes along and does it better, or whether or not you’re not in your prime anymore. Albert Einstein will forever be considered an expert, and I don’t think anyone would argue with that.
Do you think you can ever lose your expert status?
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I believe it’s possible to lose your status as a current expert in a field, if you’re no longer top-performing or up-to-date in your knowledge.
That said, someone who has really set themselves apart as an expert remains one even as they leave the arena, in the sense of “he was an expert during this period”. They may no longer be the current leader or even active in that field, but that doesn’t lessen the impact they had originally.
Calling Albert Einstein clueless just because his theory may now be proven wrong seems misguided. His theory of relativity was a major breakthrough in the understanding of physics in his day, and helped fuel and direct the research that’s brought us to where we are today. Theorizing, disproving, and re-theorizing is the foundation of science itself.
Similarly, athletes and songwriters who are lauded as expert in their field at one point serve as an inspiration to those around them. That impacts the future of their field regardless of what they do later.
I see your point, but your first example is not very helpful. No one considers Newton “clueless,” even if his theories were superseded by Einstein’s relativity theory. No one, but a clueless scientist or science reporter, would call Einstein clueless if his relativity theory were to be corrected. He was asked once what he would think if experiments proved his theory wrong. He said, presciently, “I’d say they made a mistake.” Which, of course, is exactly what has just happened with the faster-than-light neutrino: a faulty cable (http://bit.ly/yC2yx3). So, you’re right, he will be forever an “expert,” but it is just too early to say that his ideas are slowly being proven wrong. I think they will never be, just as Newton’s are not wrong, they are just not applicable under certain conditions. I wholly agree with your main point, but I think that using Einstein’s example may suggest your readers that scientific statements are bound to be proven wrong eventually, which is not how science works.
As an aside, Bruce Jenner won the olympic gold medal in 1976 in decathlon. While the decathlon includes running events, no track and field fan would call decathletes, “expert runners.”
I think you can lose it as long as you’re no longer trying to advance yourself in that field. Once the stagnation or regression has started to set in (usually due to folks resting on their laurels), it’s over.
Easily, make a major and well publicised stuff up. It is possible to rebuild but you will need to ‘fess up and re-orient
I don’t think you ever really lose expert status. Typically, being an expert in something results in a vast breadth of knowledge. Even if your knowledge is outdated or extinct due to technology, you are still viewed as an expert in your niche.
The problem happen when an expert’s status is short-lived; it makes everyone question if they were really an expert at all. The ones that hold the title for a long time are generally safe with it forever
I think people confuse expert status with relevance. I believe once you’re an expert, you will always have that expert status. But your expertise may not always be relevant. For example, there are many Google+ experts right now. If Google+ founders and Google ends up pulling it (just hypothetical), there will still be Google+ experts out there but no one will really care.
Now that I see it this way it has happened to me as a developer, in college I was damn good developing, I have a pretty awesome logic, so it was easy for me, however after I graduated with honors I never worked at it, I loved to do server maintenance, but even now, every now and then, people ask me for advice with their projects, even though I don’t remember the codes anymore, the logic is still there