People seriously misunderstand expertise. There's the perennial news stories like "Harvard MBA's don't know what causes Earth's seasons!?! LOL!". And the "He'

People seriously misunderstand expertise. There's the perennial news stories like "Harvard MBA's don't know what causes Earth's seasons!?! LOL!". And the "He's a Scientist, so he must know...". And the "my local TV news meteorologist proved climate change isn't real". And in TFA, "But sometimes [experts] say something so obviously incorrect, [...] that the only possible explanation is that they understand very little about their field. [disillusioned gasp!]". So, you're a computer engineer? Wow, you must be sooooooo smart. An Expert! And did you read Huckleberry Finn in school like me? Yes, thirty years ago? Great, what do you think of the raft trip as an allegory for mumble mumble? What, you've no idea?!? - LOL. But I'm glad you're an Engineer - tell me what kind of solar panels should I buy, and about driving trains. And, Ha ha, you didn't even notice the computer cable was loose - you obviously understand very little about computers. If the last time someone touched something was in middle school, don't be surprised to find a middle schooler's understanding. If you ask a protein chemist a quantum chemistry question, don't be surprised to get a decades-old graduate student's answer. Don't be surprised if a respected fruit fly biologist, believes earthy-crunchy nuttery about the human heath benefits of eating nuts. Don't be surprised by scientists gossiping at conferences "Yeah, don't believe work from [first-tier PI] on topic X - he sees what he wants to see". Don't be surprised when a first-tier stone cold empirical physicist, says "I don't need to test it - I trust my gut to tell me how well my teaching is working". Expertise can become ramshackle startlingly fast as you move away from someone's own research focus. Or sometimes from an advanced teaching focus. A focus with fear of being embarrassed by getting things wrong in front of double-checking picky peers. Getting things right is hard, and takes effort - which has to be incentivized, and monitored. And it's not just "what is expertise" which is taught badly. If I told you "Yay, I found a good Professor of Computer Science, to write a Computer textbook, including language design, microservices, chip taping, and UX - I'm sure he will do a correct and insightful job of it", what would you think? So, what if you heard "Yay, I found a good Professor of Chemistry, to write a Chemistry textbook, including bonding, nuclei, materials, and nanostructures - I'm sure he will do a correct and insightful job of it"? Or how about "Welcome to <big textbook publisher>, new graduates, new science textbook writers. Don't worry that you only have a liberal arts degree, and no background in science at all, because we have a Scientist on call for questions!". Sigh. People seriously misunderstand expertise.