The power of influence to lead the herd off a cliff, or to the promise land.
Assertion
Experts have influence. They can sway your beliefs. They can help you make decisions. They can tell you right from wrong. They can help you change your life. Experts, generally speaking, are a good thing. The problem these days is, everyone seems to be an expert.
My assertion is that people are forgetting what being an expert really means. False or misleading proclamations of expertise are born from the capacity to self promote using the reach and freedom of modern day internet technologies.
The ease of self promotion, and the ability to label oneself an expert, creates two problems. One, actually being an expert has diminished in value. Two, people are making decisions based on the expert advice of people who really are not experts.
Value of Actually Being an Expert
“An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by peers or the public in a specific well-distinguished domain.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert
Expert Advice – The Risk of Being Manipulated
Ifram Article
Become an Expert – The Horse and Cart
Personal Branding
Self Promotion Good or Bad
