Expertism // The Confederacy of Experts: The Crushing Nexus of Silos, Systems, Arrogance and Irrational Certainty

By Gary Lawrence. The problems of our time, belief in the value of specialization over generalization and the history of educational praxis inspire people to become ever more “expert” in their chosen field – to delve deeper into technical understanding, to focus more narrowly on one specific application, to create niches within already specialized niches. Our expertise in the fields of water, energy and agriculture is growing more sophisticated every day. We can analyze, predict, model and innovate at an almost molecular level in each field. What we are not good at is the big picture.