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To hire someone with expertise to solve a problem in a domain where you aren't an expert: You find people who claim to understand the domain, and then discuss

To hire someone with expertise to solve a problem in a domain where you aren't an expert: You find people who claim to understand the domain, and then discuss the problem with them in depth. Your goal is not to evaluate them in general but to understand how they analyze the problem and how they'd deal with it. You may have to hire them as consultants. You have to dedicate a day or more to discussion with each of them -- maybe considerably more if your problem is complex. You have to reveal information about your plans and/or the condition of your systems that may make you anxious or embarrassed. After you've gone over the problem separately with five or ten putative experts, you will have a pretty good idea which of them understand it (if any), and you will also know how to ask much better questions going forward. If necessary repeat this process, using your better understanding to find better experts and gain a better map of the territory. Once you can rank expertise in your domain reliably, you might hire one (or more) of the known experts, but the best ones will be hardest to hire. Or you may use your new meta-expertise in the domain to look for more junior hires who have an unusually good grasp of your issues. Also, you may be able to get the best of your experts to act as advisors. This takes a lot of time and may cost some money depending on the domain. But not doing it will take more time and cost more money in the medium to long term (and even in the short term sometimes).

hyperpallium 8y ago
AKA become expert. I wonder if the people who become fantastically successful simply have the ability to evaluate expertise, without having any of it. i.e. by "reading" people, in some sense. This relies on the "expert"'s own evaluation of their expertise, which mightn't be accurate, because of Dunning–Kruger, or conversely, self-doubt. So, one would need to "read" those too.
- jedharris 8y ago
  You definitely can't trust people's self-evaluation either way. Lots of really skilled people are self-critical. "Reading people" of course helps but it is nowhere near enough. But you don't have to become an expert. If I hire a plumber or carpenter, I cannot do what they can. But with enough work I can understand which plumbers or carpenters will do a good job.

hyperpallium 8y ago

AKA become expert. I wonder if the people who become fantastically successful simply have the ability to evaluate expertise, without having any of it. i.e. by "reading" people, in some sense. This relies on the "expert"'s own evaluation of their expertise, which mightn't be accurate, because of Dunning–Kruger, or conversely, self-doubt. So, one would need to "read" those too.

jedharris 8y ago
You definitely can't trust people's self-evaluation either way. Lots of really skilled people are self-critical. "Reading people" of course helps but it is nowhere near enough. But you don't have to become an expert. If I hire a plumber or carpenter, I cannot do what they can. But with enough work I can understand which plumbers or carpenters will do a good job.