I imagine there is another class of experts who have decades of experience, rich implicit models and impressive achievements, but who would struggle to present concise, detailed answers if you asked them to share their wisdom. I suspect that quiet observation of such a person in their work environment, rather than asking them questions, would yield a better measure of their level of expertise, but this requires considerable skill on the part of the observer.
Indeed: tacit experts. The way I assess this now is basically by looking at indirect signs around the potential tacit expert (e.g., achievements is a good one, as is evidence of them having made costly tradeoffs in the past to develop their expertise (a weaker sign).) If anyone develops tools for directly assessing tacit experts, please let me know.
I’d also be very interested if anyone has ideas for how to learn the skills of tacit experts, once you’ve identified them.
One idea for learning the skills of tacit experts that I found works is to copy their behaviors regarding the domain, without necessarily understanding the reasons behind their behaviors.
It sounds strange to us as people who are very intellectually-oriented and seek to understand the reasons behind why something works. I know it did to me when I first tried to do it. Moreover, there is a danger of copying behaviors that are incidental and do not lead to the desired outcome. Still, given that tacit experts often don’t know themselves why they do well at what they do, simply copying their behaviors seems to work.
One domain is social behavior. Emulating the social behavior of people who have high charisma has proved beneficial for me in improving my own charisma, even if the people with high charisma could not explain their own charisma.
Indeed: tacit experts. The way I assess this now is basically by looking at indirect signs around the potential tacit expert (e.g., achievements is a good one, as is evidence of them having made costly tradeoffs in the past to develop their expertise (a weaker sign).) If anyone develops tools for directly assessing tacit experts, please let me know.
I’d also be very interested if anyone has ideas for how to learn the skills of tacit experts, once you’ve identified them.
One idea for learning the skills of tacit experts that I found works is to copy their behaviors regarding the domain, without necessarily understanding the reasons behind their behaviors.
It sounds strange to us as people who are very intellectually-oriented and seek to understand the reasons behind why something works. I know it did to me when I first tried to do it. Moreover, there is a danger of copying behaviors that are incidental and do not lead to the desired outcome. Still, given that tacit experts often don’t know themselves why they do well at what they do, simply copying their behaviors seems to work.
What domains have you found this to work in?
One domain is social behavior. Emulating the social behavior of people who have high charisma has proved beneficial for me in improving my own charisma, even if the people with high charisma could not explain their own charisma.