Being a self-appointed expert goes a long way if you're willing to work the character. A combination of information overload and a tendency to give people the b

Being a self-appointed expert goes a long way if you're willing to work the character. A combination of information overload and a tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt - especially if there is (as yet) little competition for whatever niche you're trying to occupy. people are predisposed (and media people almost pathologically so) to assume benign or benevolent intent in the absence of better (or any alternate) sources of truth. To wit: I'm cofounder and senior researcher at The Center For Decentralization. We have business cards, phone numbers, offered a free consultation service to budding decentralists who were interested in shaping public policy, a social media presence, the whole deal. For a little while we even sent representatives to Congressional meetings and had an office in DC. I have no official credentials in this area. And I'm also the only co-founder, because a decentralist mustbtake care to avoid any language that makes it sound like you're the center of the thing you're trying to decentralize. Which, naturally and inescapably, you are. I started TCFD as a parody to point out the fundamental paradoxes arising when one affects to be sponsoring or causing decentralization to happen, whether as an individual or a group of individuals. I thought the joke would be obvious to anyone the moment they saw our business card or heard the name, but was rather astounded to to discover that about half of the people I introduced myself to as "senior researcher, primus inter pares" completely took it seriously.