Image Source https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/expertfailure_coverdetail.JPG
After watching this week lecture, which was Expert Failure, by Dr. Roger Koppl, he talked about what experts are, how they fail, and basically what they do. His definition of what an expert is, it is anyone who is getting paid to share their opinion. Dr. Roger Koppl gave many different examples of what an expert is and what an expert isn’t. Whenever I think of an expert, I think of someone who has worked really hard to grow their knowledge and do their best to be a higher up in that industry. One person or job I think an expert is, is the President because they have done so much work to be educated to make the right decisions for Americans. Do I think everyone is qualified to be an expert? No, I think it is very easy to get around some things if you have money or a famous last name. Dr. Roger Koppl gave an example of a race car driver and said they aren’t an expert because they are paid to drive and not share their opinion.
One thing I found very interesting from his talk was the difference between an expert and non-expert. Like stated before, an expert is someone who shares their opinion and gets paid for it. He says that even if you are very knowledgeable about something it doesn’t always make you an expert. Most people who are in different industries that are sharing their opinions aren’t experts because they are getting paid for their job and not their mouth. In my opinion most celebrities would think they are experts because they get paid to talk about different things, which is not an expert.
One big example of expert failure is what happened in 2008. Even though those people were in office and doing things for the economy they didn’t stop it. In 2008 the housing bubble occurred, and it was very hard on many Americans. The ‘experts’ that were working these jobs ended up failing many Americans and then had to bail out so many different corporations. Even though that did happen Dr. Roger Koppl wants people to know that experts are humans, and they make mistakes like everyone else.
I don’t know if I fully agree with his definition of expert just because you can be an expert at doing something and get paid for it. I don’t think an expert should be called an expert just to share their opinions and get paid for it. I think a race car driver should be an expert because it is very hard to do what they do. It takes a lot of education to be able to do all of that. I would consider doctors experts because they share their professional opinion to their patients and get paid for it.