how to not be an expert

what is an expert

“Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed.”

JOE STRUMMER

how we make experts

otherwise known as education

“You don't necessarily have to have talent, you can just get up and do something and see where it takes you. I always tell girls who say they want to start a band but don't have any talent, well, neither do I. I mean, I can carry a tune, but anyone who picks up a bass can figure it out. You don't have to have magic unicorn powers.”

KATHLEEN HANNA

things I’ve learned so far

un-learning old expectations is more difficult and terrifying than learning something new

education is mostly about teaching people to get out of their own ways

if you teach someone a thing, she’ll know a thing—or you can teach her to learn and she can know anything

anti-experts out in the world

“Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles — a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other — that kept me going.”

HUNTER S. THOMPSON

my experts are questioners and explorers and learners and beginners and screw-ups and risk takers and punks and rebels with causes

jen myers @antiheroine hello@jenmyers.net