What Irritates Me About Most "Experts" In Today's World
Why I Have Honestly Stopped Following Most Of Them
What Irritates Me About Most “Experts” In Today’s World
Why I Have Honestly Stopped Following Most Of Them
Written by a human, for humans, always.
In my work...
I have had to do a lot of research.
Looking into human psychophysiology.
Understanding how leaders work best...
Or fail to accomplish their goals.
How business ecosystems are designed and the different cause-and-effect chains that lead to their rise and fall.
All of this and more, I have gone down so many different rabbit holes...
Just to gain a better understanding.
Along the way...
There have been many different individuals whom I have been told that I “need” to follow.
Their work.
Their methodologies.
Their successes.
At the beginning...
I did follow many of these different “experts” that I heard about.
I watched their videos.
Listened to their podcasts.
Read their books.
Subscribed to their newsletters.
Bought their courses.
Paid to get into rooms with them.
Along the way...
There was something that I began to see...
Again...
And Again...
That really began to irritate me about the vast majority of these “experts” in today’s world...
To the point where there are really few experts that I continue to follow...
And even among those I follow...
I often still have hesitations.
Do you want to know the one thing that irritates me about most “experts” in today’s world?
They will tell you about case studies...
Or individual accounts of success, they helped others attain...
While either completely ignoring...
Or deliberately hiding...
The number of accounts where their work was unsuccessful...
Unhelpful...
And indeed in some cases...
Even harmful.
There are two pieces of this problem that I frequently see together...
The Survivorship Bias...
And a complete lack of accountability for their overall results.
This is how it usually plays out...
These experts often highlight a small number of total individuals, groups, teams, or organizations they have had some level of success with...
Usually over a short period of time working with them...
Without ever paying attention to long-term results to see whether these individuals “continued” to keep their “successes”...
While simultaneously...
Failing to discuss or account for a significantly larger number of individuals, groups, teams, or organizations they have worked with...
Who did not have nearly the same level of success...
If they had “any” level of success at all...
Then, usually saying something to the effect of...
Those people never implemented the systems...
They did not do it correctly...
They did not have the right mindset...
The reason they failed had to do with something else that went wrong...
Reason given...
After reason given...
About how “those” results were not the “expert’s” fault.
Look...
I know that no expert is ever going to get 100% success...
But when you claim your systems “work”...
Yet only have a 20% success rate or less...
Which dramatically declines the longer you look at those you claim to “help”...
That is no longer a problem with others...
That points to problems with the work of the expert.
If you pay attention...
You will see this same pattern play out...
Even with “experts” who are considered “giants” in their fields...
Who have gigantic followings...
With testimonials that sound amazing.
Do you know the number of “experts” I have heard that I “had” to follow...
Who had virtually disappeared within a year?
There is a reason for that.
What they have to offer...
Usually is not worth as much as people believe...
And the “results” that are obtained...
If there are any at all...
Are short-lasting...
And most of the “success” stories have reverted within that same year period.
All while...
Those “experts” will continue to scream out to the world that it is not “their” fault...
That the problems exist with just about anything else that can be blamed.
There is no accountability from those...
“Experts”.
No apologies made.
No updates to their systems.
Not even further deep research for them to answer the questions they failed to provide.
They just keep going along...
Pretending like they walk on water...
When the “water” they walk upon is painted on the floor of a tiny room that they try to convince others is the ocean.
But what is perhaps most sad...
Is how many people actually end up believing that the tiny floor really is the ocean.
I’m not saying that we should beat ourselves up if we have fallen victim to these “experts”...
I know that I have throughout my life...
And to be fair...
Not all of these experts do this maliciously.
Some of them truly believe they are in the ocean...
Victims of industries whose standards and beliefs have dropped so dramatically...
That they actually do believe that these abysmal results are good...
Simply because they are “better than average”.
Let me paint a picture of how this works very often...
You may see the “industry average” as a 4% success rate...
And the expert in question has a 6% success rate...
Which means that their results are 50% better than the “industry average”.
50% better is surely greater...
Significantly better even...
But 6% is still objectively abysmal.
What becomes irritating with these experts for me, though...
Is that they do not question the “industry average”...
And they become vehemently defensive when it is questioned by anyone else.
They never stop to consider...
Whether their industry even “might” be wrong about what is possible.
They simply accept the current average as if it were the law of an uncaring god...
While actively preventing others from finding better pathways...
Saying that “this” is just how it is supposed to be...
Telling you that it is the uncaring god’s fault that it is this way...
And never questioning whether they have the responsibility to accept accountability for maintaining that broken status quo.
So...
This brings us to now...
What do we do about this?
Well...
If you are following someone who claims to be an “expert”...
Pay attention to see whether they accept responsibility for their failings...
Whether they fall into the Survivorship Bias of their own work...
And whether they are continuing to seek out ways to improve what they do, and are willing to discuss it.
Good experts are not afraid to discuss why they are not satisfied with the results they have gotten...
And are always looking for ways to question the current status quo.
If you believe yourself to be an “expert”...
How certain are you that you are not falling victim to a broken status quo?
Do you take your industry’s current results as undisputed divine law?
Or do you continue to question whether you might have things wrong?
If the people you work with and serve are not getting results...
Are you looking at “why” it is not happening?
Getting details about what is working or not?
For how long it works?
Whether things remained the same or if they changed?
If they did change...
Is there a piece of the puzzle you are missing?
What might that be?
Plus...
Are you even the right person to provide the help that is needed?
These are the types of questions that good experts will always be asking about their work...
And often...
They will find themselves to be wrong or missing something along the way.
I can tell you from my own experience of doing work with leaders...
That I have found many places where I believed that I had found the answers...
Or to discover...
That there was more that I was missing...
And I continue to find new answers the more I seek.
10 years of building my business...
And I have more questions today than I have answers...
Questions that have told me that I have been wrong before...
And I am certain that I will continue to find better answers in the future that will tell me that I was missing something today.
The world does need real experts...
But make sure that you look for and become...
A real expert.
To Your Sageship,
Cody
P.S. - It can be Difficult to Figure Out How To Achieve…
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