I do not normally think of myself as an expert in anything. I think of myself as a person who does not know anywhere near as much as he wanted to know about all of the things that he wanted to know about. But I do on occasion find myself in discussions with people where I come to realize that I have at least read about many things that they have not, and where I realize that I have had some actual hard-knocks practice in many areas that they have not. And when that happens there's no use being so humble and, er, "non-elitist", as to kid anybody about it -- indeed, it's irresponsible to do so, as it disrespects the lives and the works of those authors and teachers who took the trouble to pass on that knowledge to little ole me.
So if I were free to pick the terms of discussion -- a freedom that I may take back in a moment -- I would almost certainly replace talk of expertise with talk of experience and knowledge, and then I would almost certainly replace talk of knowledge with talk of the process by which we acquire knowledge, to wit, inquiry.
Jonny (IMG:
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This post has been edited by Jonny Cache: 
On the Nature and Sources of Expertise, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Wiki Systems
Jonny Cache On the Nature and Sources of Expertise 
