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Do they even listen to themselves?
Written By : Bookworm

My husband attended a professional multi-day seminar at an Ivy League university.  One of the classes he attended touched directly upon the work he does day in and day out.  The teacher for this seminar is a professor at the Ivy League institution.  As one of the premier “experts” in his field, he is an advisor to President Obama.  His advice will ultimately affect all of us.

“He’s really brilliant,” said my husband, “but most of what he said was just BS.  That’s not the way things really work.”

When I asked, then, why he was an expert, my husband replied, “Because he really knows his stuff.”

It seemed logical to me, at this point, to note that my husband had just said that the professor didn’t really know his stuff.

“No, you don’t get it,” answered my husband.  “He’s done all sorts of studies, and he’s really brilliant.  He’s an advisor to President Obama.”

I was confused, and I said so:  “I’m confused.  You just told me that what he’s saying doesn’t work in the real world.”

My husband got frustrated.  “Listen to what I’m saying.  He’s an expert.  He’s done lots of studies.  He’s the premier guy on this at [Ivy League University].  He’s an advisor to the President.”

Again, I’m confused:  “But you said he doesn’t make sense when it comes to the practical applications of the subject..”

My husband closed the conversation.  “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”

Cross-posted at Bookworm Room

0
  • dfenstrate

    The applicable term is 'sophistry.'

    1. (Philosophy)

    a. a method of argument that is seemingly plausible though actually invalid and misleading

    b. the art of using such arguments

    2. subtle but unsound or fallacious reasoning

    3. an instance of this; sophism

    Perhaps the professors in question weren't being delibrate, but you can both superficially sound intelligent and actually have your head up your ass.

  • tblrk2006

    NOBODY around obama, including himself, are experts in anything.

  • kingofsiam

    I could never be a women. I'd be so pissed if someone told me something like that.

  • http://www.eternityroad.info fporretto

    Bookworm, was yours an arranged marriage?

  • DrEvil

    An expert can be defined as someone who knows more and more about less and less. Eventually, they know so much about their very narrow area of expertise that they know nothing about the real world and how their discipline reactions with factors outside of it. Its like the assorted socialists who really and truly believe that socialism would work but then they run into real people, living and working in the real world and their ideas fail every single time.

    Have an Evil day

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    Ahh – the paradox of academia. Bright minds adept at learning and at formulating theories/hypotheses and at getting published. Brilliant people who are looked up to as authorities in their fields and leaders in shaping the thinking of young minds.

    And yet, with the world seemingly at their feet ready to be made to bend to their superior will, many of these academics stay cloistered in their ivory tower world, only coming out to play in safe, secure sandboxes under the "protection" of business or government. Could it be that there's an element of truth to the old adage "those who can't do, teach"?

    When I received my PhD fifteen years ago, an informal poll of the other people graduating from the same programme as I showed that the majority of them were not going to apply their knowledge and skills in the world of business, but rather they were going to teach uni or a few were headed to work at some government agency. It's not that we don't need bright people in academia and government; it's that we also need bright people in business who are infused with the 'doer' mentality.

  • http://TheNixonTape.Blogspot.Com Dick_Nixon

    Yesterday I went to a seminar on torture where a senior bush official said they knew they could dupe the people who voted for bush to support torture even though it violates international law.

    Link please?

  • aharris

    My husband sees this every day. Academic thinking and training tends to confine one to "the box." Other people see the academic creds and go right along with them. My husband never bought into the idea that a longer alphabet makes one automatically superior or wiser than anyone else, and that's one of the reasons he regularly sits at the meeting table with those same alphabets and they regularly accept his suggestions and recommendations, sometimes with very little direct proof that what he's saying is correct (although he can certainly back himself up given time to gather his case).

    In short, it isn't the academic training that makes one an expert so much as what you do with it when you get the chance.

  • Jack Schite

    What a hoot. Next tome for credibilty sake name the advisor.

    Yesterday I went to a seminar on torture where a senior bush official said they knew they could dupe the people who voted for bush to support torture even though it violates international law.

    It must be true because you just read it here.

  • tomw

    I *almost* understand. Is it that: The person in question is received by his peers as 'the expert' even though he has never ventured out of his ivory tower where all 'experiments' are conducted virtually with no relation to reality?

    He's the expert on how it should work, but that has no relation to reality????

    tom

    p.s. Obonga has MANY people of that sort working in the WH.

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