Bad research doesn’t stink - Carl J. Pearson, PhD

Right now, we’re either witnessing a golden age of expertise or a crisis of expertise, depending on who you ask. It’s undeniable that technology has democratized access to high-quality information, data, and tools for research, creation, and distribution.

Jacob McHangama: Future generations will marvel at the new perspectives, voices, and knowledge that have come to light in the digital era and simply weren’t possible (or deemed desirable) in the age of analog. Where does all this leave expertise? Expertise remains crucial to knowledge production, but it must reflect genuine excellence in a given fi... See more

Beware of research. I think the reason is that the subset of ideas that count as research is so narrow that it's unlikely that a project that satisfied that constraint would also satisfy the orthogonal constraint of solving users' problems.

Andy Coravos: When people ask what you do, they really seem to be asking who you are, putting the attention on people’s credentials within institutions (the nouns) rather than on their actions and contributions (how they live, work, and cultivate knowledge in their fields). Expertise is equated with the former, when it should be more about the latt... See more

Patrick Wyman: We’re not dealing with a crisis of expertise itself as much as a crisis of explanation. Far too many disciplines (most notably, epidemiology and public health over the last year) have run face-first into their inability to make the general public understand what they’re saying and why. .. All disciplines have their own technical lang... See more

Finally, UCD’s focus on “successful” experiences obscures possibilities that lie outside of predetermined success metrics, preventing us from designing for uncertainty, failure, or experimentation in the ways we might.

Nadia Eghbal: It’s not just the discovery of knowledge (i.e., learning new things) that’s easier now, but also the validation (where your peers, rather than an accredited institution, decide whether your insights are worth discussing) and distribution of knowledge. Sharing new ideas previously required working with centralized gatekeepers, like a u... See more