When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

25 July 2006

How To Be an Expert on Anything

PICK A FIELD THAT CAN'T BE VERIFIED. Try something like string theory or God’s will: “I speak to God. I’m sorry that you can’t also.” Security experts are in this category: They have security clearances, we don’t. We can’t question the expertise of the NSA because we are not in the NSA.

CHOOSE A SUBJECT THAT'S ACTUALLY SECRET. Dan Brown invented a secret subject for The Da Vinci Code, so now he is forever an expert on this secret subject that no one can challenge. Anybody who attacks the secret subject is, by definition, part of the cabal.
Wired 14.08: Be an Expert on Anything (Stephen Colbert, interviewed by John Hockenberry)

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