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Dunning-Kruger in graphical form

It's interesting. I generally agree that we should defer to the understanding of experts. On the other hand, the experts are wrong about some things, and the way that our knowledge will progress is through those things being questioned by, generally, people will less knowledge, experience, and prestige.

It usually happens from within a particular field and by the next generation of experts, though, rather than from without.

If you are an expert in a field yourself, and actively working publishing responding to improve understanding in that field, absolutely questioning other experts is part of your day to day job. Where the problems tend to come up is when people with no such personal expertise think questioning the opinion of experts a virtue even if they lack the understanding to ask the right questions let along come up with better answers or advance our understanding. This typically happens because they overestimate their own understanding and capability.
 
If you are an expert in a field yourself, and actively working publishing responding to improve understanding in that field, absolutely questioning other experts is part of your day to day job. Where the problems tend to come up is when people with no such personal expertise think questioning the opinion of experts a virtue even if they lack the understanding to ask the right questions let along come up with better answers or advance our understanding. This typically happens because they overestimate their own understanding and capability.

Typical Ivory Tower thinking.

You do realize that amateurs built the Ark, but experts built the Titanic. What about them apples, smart guy, huh?
 
It comes from pseudoscientists who try to discredit those who are trying to debunk the pseudoscience
 
Can't really answer that one, can we, unless we first devise an SQ? How might that work, I wonder, should someone attempt something like that?

I have already developed an SQ test.
It is quite accurate.
It has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
I’ll provide a link to the test tomorrow.


Let me explain how my test works. Subjects are given the four statements listed above. The number of statements that a subject accepts as true is inversely correlated to the subject’s SQ. So, far the results have shown that my test is rather accurate. D’oh! I just halved my skeptical quotient by accepting the first two statements - god damn paradoxes.
 
I think physicists could be on average the most qualified hard scientists to talk outside their immediate area of expertise.

I don't have evidence for this but it seems reasonable.
 
What makes it seem reasonable?
Biologists, for instance, tend to be less religious than other professions (but only slightly less so than physicists):

Disbelief in God by Academics Discipline: Physics 40.8%, Chemistry 26.6%, Biology 41.0%, Overall 37.6%. Sociology 34.0%, Economics 31.7%, Political Science 27.0%, Psychology 33.0%, Overall 31.2%.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/H...hat_is_the_majority_religion_among_scientists


But I just love what one famous physicist came up with when he went outside his immediate field of expertise: :)

Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.
This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.
On Socialism
 
(dis)belief in God is overrated.

Physicists can reasonably talk about a really wide range of scientific subjects without looking foolish cause it's a good base for chemistry and engineering and their derivatives.
 
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