Experts vs. Imitators

Experts vs. Imitators

Seeking specialist advice requires finding people who understand the subject. A person’s reputation or claim of expertise may not tell you how deep that understanding goes.

SAFEGUARD: Take time to distinguish real experts from imitators.

Think of all the money managers who borrow their talking points from Warren Buffett. They might sound like Buffett, but they don’t know how to invest the way Buffett does. They’re imitators. Charlie Munger once commented on this: “It’s very hard to tell the difference between a good money manager and someone who just has the patter down.”

But what if you’re not an expert yourself? How do you tell the difference between an expert and an imitator?

Experts are usually enthusiastic about their area of expertise. That’s why they’re good at it: they spend even their spare time mastering and refining their knowledge and skills, and it shows. Imitators are less concerned with being great and more concerned with looking great. That concern makes it easy for the ego to take over.

Here are some things to look for:

• Imitators can’t answer questions at a deeper level. Specific knowledge is earned, not learned, so imitators don’t fully understand the ideas they’re talking about.fn3 Their knowledge is shallow. As a result, when you ask about details, or first principles or nonstandard cases, they don’t have good answers.
• Imitators can’t adapt their vocabulary. They can explain things using only the vocabulary they were taught, which is often full of jargon. Because they don’t fully understand the ideas behind the vocabulary, they can’t adapt the way they talk about those ideas to express them more clearly to their audience.
• Imitators get frustrated when you say you don’t understand. That frustration is a result of being overly concerned with the appearance of expertise—which they might not be able to maintain if they have to really get into the weeds with an explanation. Real experts have earned their expertise and are excited about trying to share what they know. They aren’t frustrated by your lack of understanding; they instead love your genuine curiosity about something they care about.
• Experts can tell you all the ways they’ve failed. They know and accept that some form of failure is often part of the learning process. Imitators, however, are less likely to own up to mistakes because they’re afraid it will tarnish the image they’re trying to project.
• Imitators don’t know the limits of their expertise. Experts know what they know, and also know what they don’t know. They understand that their understanding has boundaries, and they’re able to tell you when they’re approaching the limits of their circle of competence. Imitators can’t. They can’t tell when they’re crossing the boundary into things they don’t understand.

Many people encounter a subject through a popular account rather than original research. Clear, memorable communication is useful, but it does not by itself establish expertise. A popularizer may also be an expert; assess their knowledge of the particular question instead of relying on their visibility.