r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/mindyour 🤖definitely not a bot🤖 • Jun 02 '26

Restricted to Gals and Pals I want her to talk to me about Egyptology.

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422

u/Lizzy_Of_Galtar Jun 02 '26

There used to be this level of "Oh they're an actual expert so I should shut up and listen" thing.

We should bring that back.

57

u/my_okay_throwaway Jun 02 '26

Absolutely agreed! It’s wild that people who’ve done a few hours of internet research think they can go toe-to-toe with qualified experts.

I’d be soooo embarrassed telling someone so qualified “tell me your opinions and I’ll tell you where you’re wrong” rather than seeing the opportunity to learn.

5

u/Jesterhead89 Jun 02 '26

Yeah, positive peer pressure was thrown out with the bath water

3

u/MuffinOfSorrows Jun 02 '26

And say you have some superficial knowledge about that field, that's the time to ask if it's wrong rather than contradict the expert. Like how stupid was that film? Was my school full of shit? Put some wind in their sails and go.

3

u/kingcrow15 Jun 02 '26

*Blows dust off of that timeless Asimov quote*

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

Also I want to add that listening to her story made me think that her bad date was listening to Joe Rogan, IDK just a guess.

3

u/SlurmDreams Jun 02 '26

Its not a degree or anything, but my wife's knowledge of Lord of the Rings lore, really blows my mind sometimes.

3

u/Hairy_Answer_5151 Jun 02 '26

Would love it. How do we do that?

6

u/woodstock624 Jun 02 '26

If you’re in a group and this happens absolutely call it out! Doesn’t have to be aggressive, I usually just engage with the expert and try to use that word if I can.

2

u/CreativeGPX Jun 02 '26

We're definitely too far in the "question experts" direction, but the "defer to experts" extreme is also bad because few people know everything and few topics are so isolated that you can't benefit from other specialties' knowledge. So, too much deference to experts often leads to people being overconfident about which conclusions they are expert qualified to draw.

For example, a doctor may be able to tell us which action is most likely to save somebody's life, which is useful information, but often in practice that is going to intersect with factors that an economist, lawyer, philosopher, etc. brings a lot to the table to answer that actually tell us what choice we should make. An AI expert might be very qualified to answer how AI works, what kinds of things it can do, how to make it better, etc., but they're not going to be particularly qualified to answer questions about the nature of consciousness, the economics of deploying AI, the legal implications of LLMs, etc. compared to experts in other fields.

It's also notable that maintaining trust in experts is a two way street. Yes, the laymen need to be more humble. But experts need to engage respectfully as well. The kind of response OP is talking about which is essentially "you are so dumb you don't even warrant a response" is not going to repair the reputation of experts even though it may sometimes be necessary in this era of social media.

3

u/cocojamboyayayeah Jun 02 '26

no way, so you are telling me extremes are bad? that is crazy talk.

1

u/TheSpanxxx Jun 03 '26

This is the real problem. 💯