I think the author leaves out one important point which is that most people sound like idiots when put on the spot and asked to talk about things outside their

I think the author leaves out one important point which is that most people sound like idiots when put on the spot and asked to talk about things outside their core competency, and for these men that core competency is business. It's entirely possible they're bad at that as well but a priori you would probably expect them to do a lot better. It's the human person Gell-Mann effect, we listen to CEOs talk about science, tech, and engineering and they sound like morons because we know these fields. But their audience is specifically people who don't-- and to them, thanks to the effect, they sound like they know what they're talking about.