Identifying an Expert: Criteria and Mistakes

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Experts are not just defined by their years of experience as competence alone does not equal expertise. One criterion is to ask about their last mistake and how they learned from it. Experts are aware of their mistakes and learn from them while journeymen move on and forget. It's important to identify who we listen to and who we consider credible, but there is no foolproof method to determining who is an expert.

My guest today is celebrated research psychologist Gary Klein who has spent nearly 50 years studying how and why people make the decisions they do.

We discuss naturalistic decision making, the crucial difference between experience and expertise, why some people stagnate and others progress, Cognitive Flexibility Theory, the role of storytelling, surprising ways to gain insights, fixation errors, cognitive biases, mental models, accelerated learning, and so much more.

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