Snow and Sky: "Experts in the Field"

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January 12, 2005

"Experts in the Field"

I had a strange thought today, during one of my IAP lectures.

The professor was talking about his advising philosophy. Now, as an aside, I should say that the way we have organized these lectures is that a given professor comes, gives a roughly 45 minute speech, and then questions are asked. We have written a list of "generic" questions on the board -- questions we ask everybody, things like "How many students are you taking?" and "Average time to degree?" But the most interesting question, I find, is the last one - "What is your advising philosophy?" The professors love that one, because after a bunch of dry, rote questions about their lab, they get the chance to expound on their teaching philosophy. Remember that professors, deep down inside, just want to instill wisdom, and love to take any chance to explain how that process is done.

Anyway, this particular guy was yammering on about how he wants to train students to be experts in their field, so that they can really have a base of knowledge that sets them apart and makes them influential. But I got to thinking... what does it really mean if you say you're an Expert? I realized that at some point, I may acquire some knowledge, either by synthesis or discovery, that very few people in the world currently appreciate or share.

Now, maybe that doesn't seem very significant to you. But it hit me pretty hard -- here, before me, was the chance to be incredibly unique. Think about it - "very few people in the world" - that means in the World world! See, maybe it's just my subconscious talking, but I always feel like my individuality isn't really that individual. There's got to be someone else out there who has most of my same interests, or thinks somewhat like I do, or something like that. I mean, I tend to think that my love of winter and snow is 'unique', but there's got to be bunches of folks out there who appreciate it just like I do.

I got to thinking that science is really the most straightforward track to becoming truly unique. Research institutions like mine do it on a daily basis. If I am persistent enough, sly, tricksy and brilliant enough, I'll get to that same point myself. Having paper after paper with your name on it, having your own lab or your own foundation, even having a Nobel prize isn't really that unique. After all, there's hundreds of folks out there with Nobel prizes. To be the expert on a particular subject, though - that's something.

Posted by kgutwin at January 12, 2005 11:02 PM

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