On "Expert" Advise

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevieb
  • Start date Start date
DrewPeterson7 said:
I've totally done that!
rofl.gif


In my defense, 1.) I was actually quite good at it and 2.) my teacher, knowing #1 and knowing I was a guitarist, had me give a demonstration to the class about vibrational physics based upon the guitar. It still doesn't change the fact that eventually I realized I was wrong. :D
Click to expand...

Many of the model physics lessons begin with the vibrating string. It is an excellent way in to the wider subject. It is both visual, mathematical and physical and fairly easy to grasp as a result. Hey it was one of the tools which Pythagoras used in his attempts to understand the universe and hasn't really been improved on since as a teaching aid.;)
 
ggunn said:
As Drew said, welcome to the internet, where anyone can post advise (um, I mean advice) on any subject they want whether they know anything about it or not. One of my favorites is the posts where folks play the "physics" card as if they know what they are talking about when the only formal study of the subject they have done was in high school, if then.
Click to expand...

In many cases that is the only level to which you need to understand physics to grasp the context we discuss here. It's the understanding bit that some refuse to accept. Also I'm a believer in the statement that physics (or science in general for that matter) provides explanations it doesn't provide answers.
 
muttley600 said:
... I'm a believer in the statement that physics (or science in general for that matter) provides explanations it doesn't provide answers.
Click to expand...

That's the difference between science and engineering, IMO.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
At the same time, I think everyone who's been around long enough can also tell you that they learned the hard way that sometimes when an expert says something and you disagree with them, you're wrong. I.e. - experts are usually known as experts for a reason.
Click to expand...

That is certainly a true enough statment- but there are plenty of times that "you" are wrong, just because you dared to question the "expert's" wisdom- even if you are, in reality, right. The expert is so wrapped up in his own expertise that he is unable, or more likely, unwilling, to see or admit that he is wrong. The Porche tech who would not delve deeply enough into his own preferred method of windshield cleaning is a prime example- and there such self-proclaimed "experts" on this board- but I will leave it up to each one of you to figure out who they are. Frankly, it shouldn't be too hard- usually it comes down to Shakespere: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
 
The difference between science and engineering is that engineering involves the use of hand tools.

chazba
 
Actually, diet coke works better than regular coke or seltzer for cleaning windshields. I think (OK, it's a guess) that that is because the phosphoric acid in it acts as a solvent. Diet is better than regular because it isn't sticky, and doesn't attract yellow jackets. That doesn't change the fact that the Porsche tech in the previous post was probably an egotistical jerk. I do take issue with one thing said above, though- the idea that hacks are somehow inferior to experts. It's just a matter of perspective- I'm proud to be a hack.

Experts are the people who claimed a bumblebee couldn't fly, based on aerodynamic theory. Hacks are the people who pointed out that *it does*. We of the hack persuasion, lacking the theoretical knowledge to confuse ourselves (or others) with technical mumbo-jumbo, have to establish empirically, by trial and error (plenty of error), what works and what doesn't. Often empirical methods will arrive at solutions that the theoretical experts didn't, or couldn't.

It was a bunch of experts that figured out how to create an atomic chain reaction, but they had to bring in a hack to create the shaped charges to make it work, based on guesswork and experience with explosives. That's a dangerous thing, when experts and hacks work together. They can create some wonderful and awful things. Every time I post on this board, I try to remember that I am *not* an expert, and what I post will be read by some people who *are*. As long as I remember that I'm a hack, I'm OK. Before I write it and send it, I try always to ask myself, "Did you do it, and did it work?" If the answer is no, I'll leave it to the experts.-Richie
 
stevieb said:
That is certainly a true enough statment- but there are plenty of times that "you" are wrong, just because you dared to question the "expert's" wisdom- even if you are, in reality, right. The expert is so wrapped up in his own expertise that he is unable, or more likely, unwilling, to see or admit that he is wrong. The Porche tech who would not delve deeply enough into his own preferred method of windshield cleaning is a prime example- and there such self-proclaimed "experts" on this board- but I will leave it up to each one of you to figure out who they are. Frankly, it shouldn't be too hard- usually it comes down to Shakespere: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Click to expand...

Aye, but therein is the rub. Just because sometimes experts are wrong and you're right is no more a reason to discount the opinion of an expert in general than the fact that sometimes experts are right and you're wrong is a reason to defer blindly to them.

Don't take this the wrong way, man, but to me I'm reading this as you've got a bone to pick with some "expert" and just don't want to come out and say it, but would rather make blanket vague statements. If so, what's the point? Take it up with the dude in question, no the board as a whole.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Aye, but therein is the rub. Just because sometimes experts are wrong and you're right is no more a reason to discount the opinion of an expert in general than the fact that sometimes experts are right and you're wrong is a reason to defer blindly to them.
Click to expand...

More importantly. If the expert is right and you disagree that doesn't make you wrong. If you are right and an expert disagrees that doesn't make him/her wrong. Getting information from experienced people does not give one permission to turn off one's brain. The expert has information and opinions arrived at from training and experience but the asker makes the choices and the asker must take the responsibility.
 
Milnoque said:
More importantly. If the expert is right and you disagree that doesn't make you wrong. If you are right and an expert disagrees that doesn't make him/her wrong. Getting information from experienced people does not give one permission to turn off one's brain. The expert has information and opinions arrived at from training and experience but the asker makes the choices and the asker must take the responsibility.
Click to expand...

Well, sometimes. If the expert is telling you, "it's a REALLY bad idea to take the glass off your tubes to clean them" and you disagree, that DOES make you wrong. If the expert is telling you "woodwind bore oil should be used to condition a rosewood fretboard," and you'd rather use something special you bought from Dunlop for the purpose, that doens't make you wrong.

I do agree with your general point, though, that the ultimate responsibility for any action you take falls on yourself - if the "expert" advice doesn't make sense to you, either ask questions and do further research until it does, or just don't follow it, and accept risk for your actions either way.



really, I just wanted an excuse to post a link to that picture :D
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Aye, but therein is the rub...
Don't take this the wrong way, man, but to me I'm reading this as you've got a bone to pick with some "expert" and just don't want to come out and say it, but would rather make blanket vague statements. If so, what's the point? Take it up with the dude in question, no the board as a whole.
Click to expand...

Hey, anybody who quotes The Bard is okay in my book.

No bone to pick with any one person- the "blanket statment" as you put it is just out there- if anything, I was "dropping a line in the water" to see what fish might hit on it.
 
stevieb said:
Hey, anybody who quotes The Bard is okay in my book.

No bone to pick with any one person- the "blanket statment" as you put it is just out there- if anything, I was "dropping a line in the water" to see what fish might hit on it.
Click to expand...

You know, that is the literal interpretation of trolling... ;^)
 
stevieb said:
Hey, anybody who quotes The Bard is okay in my book..
Click to expand...

I'm a recovering American Lit major who sold his soul to a large multinational bank - don't hate me. ;)

Really, I was just glad to have an excuse to post that Craig's List ad. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top