Ask HN: Are people only smart until they talk about things you know more about?

2. People usually have a lot of shallow knowledge on many things but deep knowledge on very few (if at all)

3. Many things are complicated enough that shallow knowledge==wrong knowledge from an expect point of view (the same way high school physics usually don't have friction, you sacrifice correctness for simplicity)

We are all fools on many topics, most topics. One of my mentors in the past used to say there was no substitute for experience in an area. If you were joining a project and the members had a head start you should listen and learn because their experience was way ahead of your opinions on how it could be done.

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/

Coincidentally, I met him later and he talked about his experience with the journalists. He was wise to their laziness, and he made them all read their notes back so he could be sure they got it right.

I think in principle the reporters know they should be careful what they write, but in practice... deadlines, you know.