>> Leonardo da Vinci >Was an expert in his fields at the time. He spent many many hours studying anatomy and nature. Yes, but he didn't have an advanced degre

>> Leonardo da Vinci >Was an expert in his fields at the time. He spent many many hours studying anatomy and nature. Yes, but he didn't have an advanced degree in those fields. And he didn't need one. That was more my point (which perhaps I could have made more clearly): We use a lot of over-credentialing and job-titling to filter who is taken seriously in contributing to certain fields, especially in the sciences. Other fields, like software development or entrepreneurship, have much lower barriers to entry and see more disruptive innovation and change, which leads to faster progress. Having spent about 9 years becoming an expert in risk management, I have credentials, but they have very little to do with my actual ability to do the job or not. And having too many people with similar backgrounds in a room (or an industry) can lead to insular thinking. Maybe I'll write a follow-up post about this. Thank you for your comment. And an especially good point re: Galileo. You're right.