I was also really surprised how easy it was to get experts on product certification (CE testing) and standardisation on the phone. They don’t seem used to talking to an overly enthusiastic person in their twenties and have been insanely helpful.
Another +1 that it’s surprisingly easy to get experts to talk to you. Once for a job I had to find out this super obscure thing about the Federal Reserve. Instead of spending hours trying to research it on my own (which I don’t think would have gone anywhere), I found a Fed expert at a think tank. He also didn’t know the answer to the question, but helped immensely in tracking an answer down. I was surprised by how much time he spent on it!
If you’re becoming an expert in something neglected, chances are there won’t be good public writing about it, so you should really lean on speaking with experts.
Thanks for writing this!
Another way to think about it: it’s much more likely that a boring thing is neglected than something that sounds sexy.
A potential meta-skill I’ve been somewhat successful at building is to approach these superficially bland topics like a photographer: [If it’s boring, you’re not close enough.] (https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/07/29/if-your-pictures-arent-good-enough-youre-not-close-enough-vintage-prints-by-war-photographer-robert-capa-to-headline-photo-london) For example, you can challenge yourself to give a 5 minute lightning talk that gets others excited after 1h of research on such a topic!
I was also really surprised how easy it was to get experts on product certification (CE testing) and standardisation on the phone. They don’t seem used to talking to an overly enthusiastic person in their twenties and have been insanely helpful.
+1 on “specialist experts are surprisingly accessible to enthusiastic youth”, cf some relevant advice from Alexey Guzey
Another +1 that it’s surprisingly easy to get experts to talk to you. Once for a job I had to find out this super obscure thing about the Federal Reserve. Instead of spending hours trying to research it on my own (which I don’t think would have gone anywhere), I found a Fed expert at a think tank. He also didn’t know the answer to the question, but helped immensely in tracking an answer down. I was surprised by how much time he spent on it!
If you’re becoming an expert in something neglected, chances are there won’t be good public writing about it, so you should really lean on speaking with experts.