Why just Becoming an “Expert” is Not Enough

Why just Becoming an “Expert” is Not Enough

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Welcome, or welcome back to Success with Srini. Happy Saturday morning to you. Today’s podcast episode is based on a conversation that I had been having with my daughter for a while now, several months now. In fact, several years, but for sure, the last few months, she just completed her high school, she’s wrapping up, and she is going into college as a part of her college prep. For the last several months, she had been writing applications applying choosing programs applying to schools. And finally, now she has acceptance from multiple schools. And she made a choice now, she made a decision to go to a specific college. And throughout this time, I had been putting my thoughts in front of her. And the point that I took the line of thinking that I had is, I don’t care which program you choose, which college you choose. At the end of the day, you have to become the best in whatever you do, you have to become the only logical choice. That’s the level that you need to shoot for. No matter what you do, you will be the most credible professional, you will be the most reliable professional, and you will be trusted all these things add up for you to become the logical choice. So that was my point.


Let’s take that context for a second. And let me explain why I’m saying this. We are now in the year 2022. Specifically, today, May 21. As I’m recording this podcast, these are the times where maybe just becoming an expert is not enough. Just having the experience is not enough. Just having the know-how is not enough. For sure expertise, is not enough. There is a level beyond expertise. Malcolm Gladwell wrote the book, Outliers the Story of Success, a book I read multiple times. And in that book, the dominant point that he made is that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you will achieve a certain level of proficiency. And he quotes numerous people as a part of the book. And based on his observations based on some experiments. There are many reviews that challenge that observation, but it is an incredible book. Now, you can become an expert, by simply giving, putting in 10,000 hours. And that equates to about four years in college, 1600 hours a year, more or less, a few couples of more years of experience something like that for five years, you would become reasonably good. Whatever you’re trying to learn.


Prior to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, there was another book that I read, Mind over Machines, The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of Computer. This book is written by two brothers, two professors of UC Berkeley, Hubert Dreyfus, and Stuart Dreyfus. In my understanding for the first time, they put together a structure on how one could become an expert, and what is involved in becoming an expert. Now, again, today’s podcast has nothing to do with you achieving the level of an expert. Today’s podcast is going beyond the level of being an expert. But again, to give you an idea of what is involved in becoming an expert, there are five stages. You start from a novice stage, then, with a little bit of experience, you kind of reach the next stage, which is becoming an advanced beginner. And from there, with a little bit more time and experience, you become competent. And then from there, you will reach the stage of being proficient. And thereafter, with some more experience and time, you become an expert. So there are five stages to this.


Now, Hubert Dreyfus and Stuart Dreyfus clearly call this out. They articulate this whole process very clearly, they say, if you’re a novice, that means you’re operating without understanding the context, you’re functioning. But sometimes this functioning is painful because there is no experience there. They know how is invisible process sometimes has to be followed, but you miss out on following the process sometimes. And sometimes you miss out on following the rules, even though you’re supposed to follow rules. And then from there, as an advanced beginner, some level of experience in place now, some sophistication, in terms of following the rules, understanding situations, all that comes in. Yet you cannot set goals, and clearly or reasonably can’t set goals and clearly follow them. You’ll still be struggling with those you need help with that.


But one good thing as an advanced beginner is that you start asking questions, HOW. How does one do this? How can this be done? These are some of the questions as a novice, you may not be asking but now as an advanced beginner, you’ll be. And then thereafter, as you become more competent, that means more experience. That means more problem solving comes in, and slow and detached reasoning comes in. You are making decisions and understanding naturally understand the context and the situation. Now from that point, after a few more years, you become proficient. That means, now you’re using your intuition to make decisions, and you have a deep situational involvement and recognition of similarity. From that point on with some more experience. And with some more time, you become an expert.


At this point, you are completely functioning with a mature understanding and understanding of the practices, you’re using your intuition, and you have a whole different level of awareness when it comes to decision-making. At this point, as an expert, your performance becomes fluent. So this is what it takes to become an expert, it takes years. Now, I started the podcast by saying that just becoming an expert is not enough. Why? Well, turns out that we now have more information, more know-how, and a lot of things coming at us, thanks to technology. And there’s a lot of proliferation of information. So what is that next level, beyond just being an expert? Well, turns out that you need to become the subject. That means when people think about the topic, let’s say I do hypnosis, I teach success, and I do seminars on self-improvement.


Let’s take the word self-improvement for a second, when anybody thinks about self-improvement, they need to think about me. So my work, my years of experience, and my talent, whatever it is, all have to qualify. It has to make me almost identical to the word self-improvement. When people think about self-improvement, I am the only thought, my name should be the only noun that should cross their mind, we become the subject, and you become the subject in what you’re doing. So there is no differentiation. Some people have achieved that level of similarity. When you say freedom when you say peace. You look at Mahatma Gandhi, you look at Martin Luther King, Jr. You take names, you clearly know what they stand for. That’s the level of achievement, that’s the level to get to. How do you get to that level? How can you become a subject yourself?


Well, in order to do that, this kind of thinking is necessary. And again, these are my thoughts, and these are the points I was driving, I was telling my daughter, you need to keep on testing new ideas. even long after you achieved your expected level of success in your mind, you need to keep on testing new ideas, you need to study opposing views and ideas. When I say opposing views, if somebody is telling you something that’s completely contradicting your line of thinking and your area of work, they also have a similar level of experience and similar trajectory, they may not be in line with your value system. But they are also successful, they have a point, I need to be accommodating to their view, I need to be willing to sit at the same table that they are sitting at and have a conversation, let them put their point. And I need to be open. I don’t need to accommodate them just because I want to, I should be inviting when they are presenting their case, open to new ideas, and open to opposing views. And then one more pursuit. And that pursuit is an uncommon depth. In that area of work.


You see people with years and years of doing something they do achieve depth. But then when the pursuit becomes the uncommon depth, nobody knows what that uncommon depth is, only you know. Only you will pursue you will apply yourself. At that level. It’s very hard to describe this, in my understanding for any expert to become a subject topic themselves, when people will have difficulties differentiating between the area of work and their name. To attain that level one has to accommodate new ideas, and opposing views and pursue uncommon depth. And that’s the position once you achieve it. You become undeniable, users become a whole different, and you become the universe. It’s hard to get there. But then once you get there, it’s going to be amazing. This is the conversation I had with my daughter.


Hopefully, I was able to articulate all that on the podcast episode today. If I did, let me know write a review or read the podcast. If you think this is going to help someone please share it with somebody who you think will benefit from this. But that’s all for now. I’ll catch you tomorrow and we will pick up another topic and we’ll talk. That’s all for now, take care. Bye.

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