Expertise is overused. Try transdisciplinarity

Recently, I was referred to as an ‘expert’ in regards to my work on an upcoming iPhone application where I’m the lead architect (Don’t worry. I promise to not drown you in technobabble on this post). Upon hearing this, I was instantly uncomfortable and I felt compelled to correct the obvious error of judgment, if for nothing more than the sake of clarity rather than modesty. In any event, it made me think: “What do people really think an expert is? Do a few rudimentary accomplishments warrant ‘master’ or even ‘wizard’ level notoriety?” While I find several technologies and programming languages to be easy to use (Adobe Creative Suite, Actionscript, HTML, AJAX, sometimes Objective-C), I find myself realizing how little I know. The truth is, that I’m not an expert at all. I am able to pick up skills quickly and I’m able to use what I’ve learned over time effectively in different situations, but I would never say I’m an expert. To say that one is an expert implies that some threshold of knowledge has been reached or surpassed, and therein lies the problem. What happens next? Is there nothing left to learn? How many experts are self-judged and consequentially self-approved?

My personal solution: Stop trying to be an expert and become a transdisciplinarian. How do I do that? I chose to study the unions between and beyond scientific disciplines and humanities. As a designer and developer, I can see how proficiency in several related fields can improve the quality of my work and my dexterity overall. For example, I can infer what ‘good’ design is if I have design research which identifies visual cues, for example, that appear comprehensible by my target audience (See Gestalt Perception). Researchers such as Sam Ladner provide scientific and empirical evidence in an effort to influence the design of future products, but often this valuable quantitative and qualitative analysis is not used in the design process, if at all. (Recent post by Sam Ladner: Context, Time, and technology, Why do ethnography?) .

Another way of advocating transdisciplinarity is to consider the current U.S. economic situation. Millions of skilled workers, which include even more ‘experts’, are unemployed. In fact, comScore recently released a news brief stating online search behavior on search terms such as “unemployment”,”coupons”, and “bankruptcy” have increased year over year by 206%, 161%, and 156% respectively (comScore: Searches Using Term ‘Unemployment’ in December Triples versus Year Ago). Can anyone really afford to have a myopic view of what the job market considers to be valuable right now?


To help me change my thinking, I read a book entitled Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt which does an excellent job describing the the way our minds learn and think by introducing concepts such as the Dreyfus Model of skill acquisition. Hunt references second-order incompetence, which is loosely described as the condition of being unskilled and unaware of the deficiency, which may be a source of many self-proclaimed experts. I recommend the book, but the overall message is to try to become more holistic with our views of proficiency. A broader view of what your / our interests may help to make people more valuable today and in the future (circa end of the recession).

How the ‘Recession’ helped me narrow my goals

When I hear people talk of the ‘pursuit of the American Dream’, one words comes to mind: Binge. Binge technology, binge entertainment, binge information, binge education. Anyone anywhere can do anything they want anytime. So, like most people, instead of trying to do anything, I tried to do everything all at once. Doing everything was my goal....Unfortunately, that is precisely where my self-inflicted confusion / delusion began.

I’ve always been fascinated with technology, mainly because of the creation and inspiration it provides. Once second a thought is in your head and given enough time, a person could put their thoughts onto a screen in the form of a picture, a program, or a blog. A person can study college level interaction design courses online and be as brilliant as a college graduate...for free. Thanks to open source, anyone can design / program websites and online apps without paying for a single byte of software. How cool was that!

It wasn’t until the recession landed right on top of me,us, everybody that I started to take note of the things I really enjoyed doing. I discovered that I have a strong desire to write and use more artistic outlets. Now that I have lots of free time, thanks to client cutbacks as well as a lower cash flow for dabbling in new technologies (i.e. Adobe CS4 is still too expensive..even after I save $200 by upgrading before Feb. 28th.), I am taking the time to narrow my career goals because I realized something very important: “Technology enables, but it also disables.”


Technology has enabled me to overextend myself with freelance projects and clouded my judgement by tricking me into thinking I want things that I really don’t want or need. Now that things have slowed a bit, I’ve managed to take control over what I want to do professionally and I am much happier for it...


Thank you recession for putting things into perspective and teaching me that milk and honey are not the most important pursuits. Thank you Leo Babuta for writing The Power of Less and making sure that I set limits and manage my expectations. Thanks Gretchen Rubin for making The Happiness Project. Thank you Shannon for putting up with my folly and my flaws while I figure out what it is that I am doing :)

Real: The power of less

Imagined: Delusions of grandeur