Expertise has become a self-proclaimed qualification. Experts become experts by calling themselves that. Equipped with little more than fifteen minutes of Wikipedia knowledge, everyone and their cousin can claim expertise on something and begin spreading nonsense to the masses. As if the term “expert” were going out of fashion, various other terms have been invented that essentially mean the same thing. Thought leader. Influencer. Authority blogger. These days, you can find an expert on e...| Ozan Varol
I’m a recovering perfectionist. It’s a battle I’ve waged for years. I’d often catch myself spending a few futile hours moving paragraphs around on the same page for the sixteenth time. I’d become obsessed with every crevice and corner, every comma and semicolon, just to get the article or the book chapter perfect—as Sisyphus rolled his eyes at me. Of course, I knew about the usual vices of perfectionism—that it’s a futile quest to hit a moving target, that it can be crippling,...| Ozan Varol
During the first few years of my academic career, I’d begin the first class of each semester with the same cliché remark: “There are no dumb questions in this class. If you don’t understand something, raise your hand and ask.” My purpose was to comfort the students. But the remark had the opposite effect. In classes where I underscored the absence of dumb questions, I noticed that students were more reluctant to raise their hands. In hindsight, this was understandable. When the Presi...| Ozan Varol
