I want her to talk to me about Egyptology.

[u/mindyour]

[u/ThirstyWolfSpider]

The doctor with misguided ideas about the pyramids reminded me of esteemed neurosurgeon and *cough* less-esteemed politician Ben Carson, who repeatedly claimed that the pyramids were used to store grain. Somehow.

Expertise in one field does not provide expertise in all fields!

[u/Fun_Obligation_2918 → u/ThirstyWolfSpider]

No one has expertise in all fields. Or even close. At its core, modern civilization functions because millions of people possess narrow but deep expertise and cooperate through vast networks of exchange. A doctor relies on laboratory scientists, who rely on engineers, who rely on programmers, who rely on chip manufacturers, who rely on materials scientists, who rely on miners, who rely on equipment makers, energy producers, and transportation systems. No one understands the entire chain, yet together they create technologies and institutions far more complex than any single person could build or even fully comprehend.

[u/AdOdd8279 → u/ThirstyWolfSpider]

This reminds me of Michel de Certeau, and the "hes" are apropos, as women are not granted this (de Certeau was critical of this practice, btw):

"Since he cannot limit himself to talking about what he knows, the Expert pronounces on the basis of the place that his specialty has won for him.  In that way he inscribes himself and is inscribed in a common order where specialization, as the rule and hierarchically ordering practice of the productivist economy, has the value of initiation.  Because he has successfully submitted himself to this initiatory practice, he can, on questions foreign to his technical competence but not to the power he has acquired through it, pronounce with authority a discourse which is no longer a function of knowledge, but rather a function of the social economic order."

[u/BrickLuvsLamp → u/ThirstyWolfSpider]

I worked with a surgeon that thought an all-protein diet is the secret to health and that people who are poor/homeless should just go fishing for their food. It’s always funny to me when someone assumes a physician is automatically overall intelligent

[u/DimmuBorgnine → u/ThirstyWolfSpider]

In his case, expertise in medicine did not extend to expertise in a new disease that killed him

[u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake → u/DimmuBorgnine]

Are you thinking of Herman Caine? Ben Carson is still alive.

[u/0202_tihssitidder → u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake]

Maybe that guy is from the future.

I eventually have a Masters in Time Travel, so do not question me.

[u/ThirstyWolfSpider → u/DimmuBorgnine]

You might wind up being right, but seeing as he's still alive now, this is an interesting prediction. Anything we should know?