There are no gurus

Only experts

 

We distrust experts

Because experts are sometimes wrong, or corrupted

What a joke

It’s like distrusting air because sometimes it smells

Doesn’t mean you should stop breathing

Experts are still the best we have

By definition, that’s what expert is — the most qualified, educated, capable person

 

But we love GURUS!

Gurus, unlike experts, tell us what we want to hear

Experts tell us what they believe is true, and earned this claim

Gurus tell us what we want to believe to be true

And allow us to repeat that same nonsense now anointed with their false authority

 

Indeed, GURU is to knowledge what packaging is to product

Expertise is the value, the product,

GURU is the packaging, but without the product

It’s when packaging is the only product

Experts sometimes have the packaging, but that’s not the point

And sometimes it’s just the product.

Just the equation

Equation you don’t understand — so you turn to GURU to tell you what to think, and pretend you know better

 

Indeed this is not even the main point

When I say there are no gurus, only experts — I say that NO ONE KNOWS everything

 

This may sound obvious, but it isn’t

Because there are very smart, very intelligent, very knowledgeable, very capable, very successful people out there

And that “VERY” does not merely pertain to magnitude — e.g. completely dominating in one realm,

By definition, at a given moment, someone has to be “the best” at one realm — that is not (so) impressive. There are as many “champions” as there are disciplines

The interesting case are people who truly are far better than average…at EVERYTHING

Those people exist

Hate to break it down to you — but there are people out there who are not only smarter than you — but also richer and cooler and wiser

But

once you accepted this uncomfortable truth, there’s still one more trap to avoid,

Which is the realisation that they are still NOT infallible,

NOT perfect

They ain’t no fucking gurus

 

There ARE no gurus

There are VERY talented people, who can outperform an average person in many, MANY things

But they can’t outperform the EXPERTS

Not unless they themselves are experts

In which case, they may be are experts in two or three domains

They can still be world-class in MANY domains. That’s what exceptional, one-in-a-generation talent can entail

But world-class experts only in couple domains, unless those domains are easy

 

You know it’s true

What athlete is world-class at more than one sport? Not many

And if he is, it’s usually a very cognate discipline

Likewise how many scientists out there know more than one discipline? Some do. But how many are leading experts in both? And that’s despite sciences having many shared elements

Even in mathematics, there’s hardly one “best mathematician”, that is “the best at all domains of mathematics”. Instead there are, guess it, top experts in respective domains

And how about so-called “intellectual” games? Is the best chess player also the best Go player? Or the best poker player?

What about high-achievers? Is the greatest business founder also the best investor? Or the best CEO?

Is the greatest piano virtuoso also the greatest composer? They barely ever are composers, actually

etc.

 

Experts outperform extremely talented people,

Again: don’t underestimate how exceptional some individuals are. They can really outperform a whole legion of midwits

But don’t overestimate them either. There are no prophets, no messiahs, no demigods

The PINNACLE of human achievement is known. It is dominated by specialists. Not by multidisciplinary generational geniuses

 

There are no gurus, only experts

Listen to experts if you want the most cutting edge insight

 

Finally,

YES, there are paths which have not yet been traversed

Or overlaps of multiple disciplines, incipient new disciplines

Versatility is strength then

And so is superior genius and vision

But that only means in that terra incognita — that precursor is the current expert

Therefore it does not refute the expert thesis, it confirms it

The condition is that this is indeed new land, the frontier

And EVEN THEN — what is best known is that little is known

An expert will know how little he knows

He won’t tell you that he holds the keys of the universe

 

And finally,

What about LIFE itself? The WORLD itself?

The subtle yet infinitely complex art of navigating this world and this life?

There are no experts on life, are there?

There is no “doctor of world matters”, is there?

Doesn’t that play into strengths of versatile geniuses?

 

It does

And there’s merit in identifying those people of superior clarity, insight, and especially TRACK RECORD: in their PREDICTIONS and SUCCESSES

HOWEVER,

Even then the LIMITATIONS must be observed

Again, their strength is answering the UNANSWERED questions

Questions where EXPERTS are out of their depth, or perhaps have already failed

But don’t overestimate how many such questions exist

 

And just like with previous case: don’t underestimate how UNKNOWN the UNKNOWN IS

Unknown is unknown for a reason

There are no experts on those matters — BECAUSE those matters are so deep and complex and personal too

Just because someone asserts to know the answer — and has some impressive resume to back it up — doesn’t mean he’s right

Sometimes we just have to ACCEPT that we DON’T KNOW

And concede that there are NO GURUS

They don’t know either

 

Therefore, always look for EXPERTS first

YES, sometimes experts are laughably wrong.

Chances are those weren’t real experts. I apologise for the corruption of institutions, science, and corresponding emergence of misinformation business, social media and fake version of everything

I apologise for those experts

And yes, even the real experts can be laughably wrong

But that doesn’t mean you’re right

Nor does it mean your favourite self-anointed expert is THE one

Maybe there just isn’t an expert in that discipline, yet

Maybe they are all fakes

Just like priests were no experts on epilepsy, or cosmology

 

Always look for experts first

If you can’t find them — MAYBE a great authority, a sage, an experienced operator, a continues frontier-pushing executor,

or even just someone you’d like to be like,

maybe they are the next person to turn to

Especially if you can cheaply test their prediction

OR if you have no other choice

Do so

Just remember that this is the LAST resort

NOT the default

Because there are NO GURUS

No one can give you the answer that is not yet there, just because you crave so

The one who does — is a fucking charlatan