This is survivorship biased and does not pertain to software or tech exclusively. Same think happens everywhere: from any niche informational space to rumors on social media. What is most interesting to me it can cut you twice, because you don’t see 2 things: other advice by silent expert, that can be as good or better, but also when most popular advice fails in practice for someone, other than the author. Thus not only you are missing out on not seeing the best, but you also maybe looking at something subpar, because there is no efficient feedback loop that would differentiate appropriately.
The silent majority of experts (2012)
111–120 of 206 posts
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Generally people giving advice publicly are in the advice business, not the business on which they are advising. I worked with a Salesperson who got fired for non-performance, who then reinvented themselves as a Sales guru by publicly giving tons of advice. People who are experts in their business (as opposed to being advice folks) tend to give it quietly 1 on 1 to people they trust. It’s a Close Friend game rat…
Kind of like a dating "expert". The only way to become such expert is to date a lot, which means you're not very good at dating in the first place. That is, if we assume that the point of dating is to efficiently find somebody for a long term relationship.
That's a bad assumption to make. Plenty of people just want to have fun dating.
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#113I think about this constantly while reading Hacker News. So many articles and comments by people whose level of enthusiasm doesn't match their experience. Try to voice a comment that goes against the flow of that enthusiasm and you'll be downvoted to oblivion, even if you speak with more experience and context than the masses. I'm horrified by some of the stuff I see here and feel like it's often useless to speak out…
I've become a lot more willing to burn my karma on here as of late. Not because I want to, per se, but what's the point of getting it if you can't spend it occasionally when you really have something you need to say?
Hacker News caps downvotes so it’s quite easy to actually say what you need to at times where it’s important. (Before someone says something like “but I got shadowbanned for doing this” consider it you 1. followed the guidelines while doing so and 2. actually backed your position up with evidence.)
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#114On the other hand, the internet has exposed me to people who are highly skilled and blog about it who have taught me lessons I would have been unlikely to learn on my own, and would have never been able to learn from 1-on-1.
Folks like Bruce Dawson, Brenden Gregg, Raymond Chen, Joel Spolsky, John Carmack, and many others. And people with strong experience to chime in on forums like HN not unfrequently. I've never had much issue taking popular opinion with a grain of salt (as least consciously), the main challenge I have is finding the right balance of time to spend online looking for the wheat in the chaff.
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#115I think about this constantly while reading Hacker News. So many articles and comments by people whose level of enthusiasm doesn't match their experience. Try to voice a comment that goes against the flow of that enthusiasm and you'll be downvoted to oblivion, even if you speak with more experience and context than the masses. I'm horrified by some of the stuff I see here and feel like it's often useless to speak out…
Horrified is a bit strong, but you have a point. There's a few themes that are strongly popular or unpopular by some type of community consensus. In those cases, it doesn't seem to matter what you have to say as minds are already made up. Another interesting effect I experienced is regarding expert credibility. When I found this place, I was impressed. I figured the world's top engineers are posting. I see them writi…
Gell-Mann amnesia
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#116I think about this constantly while reading Hacker News. So many articles and comments by people whose level of enthusiasm doesn't match their experience. Try to voice a comment that goes against the flow of that enthusiasm and you'll be downvoted to oblivion, even if you speak with more experience and context than the masses. I'm horrified by some of the stuff I see here and feel like it's often useless to speak out…
I've become a lot more willing to burn my karma on here as of late. Not because I want to, per se, but what's the point of getting it if you can't spend it occasionally when you really have something you need to say?
Absolutely, I've always held karma both on here and reddit as a resource that is to be spent when needed.
That's not to say, "be an arsehole" or go against ToS, but definitely it's made me willing to stand my ground even when I hold unpopular opinions or opinions where my culture clashes with the dominant one.
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree. > The extra years of "streetwise" Let's acknowledge exactly what "streetwise" is... it's the ability to operate in unsafe and not ideal environments in a way that maximizes personal safety. It's a privilege to not have to be "streetwise" in regards to your parents/upbringing. So many kids are just out there trying not to get their asses beat only to get steamrolled by a crippled education system that has no re…
“setback” Interesting. I was nodding in somewhat agreement until this, because as a city kid I don’t see it as a set back, just another tool in the utility belt of life. That said, if all one has are ‘street-smarts’ (just like if all one has is ‘book-learning’) well, it may just mean the pivot point is they’re just gonna have a different calculus for getting by, than someone on the opposite end.
I'm contextually referring to those kids who have to learn "street-smarts" in the home as a survival mechanism. The same "street-smarts" you're valuing should never be something that is required of a child in their home, against their parents.
When it is a constant in your life to stay "street-smart" it is a setback because it drowns out other intelligence - this happens with abusive parents.
Although related, I am not referring to the traditional city kid's need for some "street smarts" - I'm referring to unsafe environments at home/with parenting which I specifically stated in parent comment:
> Let's acknowledge exactly what "streetwise" is... it's the ability to operate in unsafe and not ideal environments in a way that maximizes personal safety.
> "streetwise" in regards to your parents/upbringing
---
My overall point is if one has to get "street-smart" because of what is happening at home... that's heinous because children should be safe, and I 100% see it as a setback inflicted on the child.
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#118I've heard about this before. The very very best are people you've never heard of. Why? Because they spend nearly all their mental resources on perfecting their craft, not writing blogs or marketing themselves online (which is an entirely different skillset). Not to say that there aren't very good people who also write blogs or give talks on certain subjects. Just thinking about it from first principles. All things b…
Working alone prevents you from standing on the shoulders of the giants around you. Working alone prevents you from challenging yourself against the best and learning from them. Teaching others close to your skill level, forces you to understand your own skills and gives you more insight into changes you can make.
In my experience, highly skilled people seem to be unusually skilled at a wide variety of disciplines, including soft-skills and apparently unrelated skills to the one they are known for.
Edit: sure, there are a lot of bullshit bloggers and marketers. One signal of very talented people is they are good at filtering for good information. Or they can pay attention to bullshit and pick out the one useful insight. Or perhaps use bullshit as abstract noise to smash out interesting ideas or test themselves against.
Edit 2: The problem is not that experts don’t publish, it is that “unskilled and unaware” is published in such abundance. I think Dan Luu writes about the problem very well: https://danluu.com/hn-comments/ . . . I do think there is confirmation/selection bias that we only see the talented that write, but I also believe that the most talented communicate to better themselves, and those that don’t communicate are holding themselves back from their potential.
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#119I think about this constantly while reading Hacker News. So many articles and comments by people whose level of enthusiasm doesn't match their experience. Try to voice a comment that goes against the flow of that enthusiasm and you'll be downvoted to oblivion, even if you speak with more experience and context than the masses. I'm horrified by some of the stuff I see here and feel like it's often useless to speak out…
Horrified is a bit strong, but you have a point. There's a few themes that are strongly popular or unpopular by some type of community consensus. In those cases, it doesn't seem to matter what you have to say as minds are already made up. Another interesting effect I experienced is regarding expert credibility. When I found this place, I was impressed. I figured the world's top engineers are posting. I see them writi…
What motivates people to make up nonsense?
Re: The silent majority of experts (2012)
#120[deleted]