Experts and the Focusing illusion
Inspired by a recent-ish episode of Rationally Speaking I figured I'd blog about an idea I've had noodling around for a bit. Stated simply, trust experts much more on matters of "is" than on matters of "ought". An expert will tend to know much more about their area than you do but the act of acquiring that expertise and the norms of their profession might cause them to have different priorities and values than you and be conscious of that fact. I think the first thing to consider is the focusing illusion or the fact that, as Daniel Kahneman put it, nothing is as important as you think it is when you're thinking about it. When you spend careful thought on some topic you will often find myriad ways in which it affects your life. If you don't spend equal careful thought on other topics you don't see how those others also have myriad impacts. And hence, you overestimate the relative importance of the first compared to all the others. Ask someo...