Experts!

The more I learn the more I realise how little I know. Served my time as an apprentice toolmaker/fitter & machinist and worked on machinery ranging from sewing machines to submarines since, including countless British and American bikes as a hobby. Would not count myself as an expert in any one field. To do that I think one has to dedicate one's life to one narrow field. Which to me is not the sign of an enquiring mind. But I am no expert on that either.
 
baz said:
That's really weird
When I first bought a house with my girlfriend everything we had was second hand
The TV would go off I'd thump it and it'd come back on until it didn't
I took the back off
Turned it upside down and I could see a faint sparkling coming from a soldered join on the circuit board
I heated a screwdriver on our camping stove and melted it back together
It was fine after
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Did you do your time at the same place as me...🤣
 
You've heard of "Jack of All Trades, Master of None"?

I'm a "Jack of many trades, pretty good at some"

High school diploma, U.S.Navy Basic Electricity & Electronics, Aviation Ground Support training, Gas Turbine Compressor training, Basic Air Conditioning / Refrigeration Principals, and a double-handful of short courses in various software programs, as well as Leadership & Management (also Navy).

Everything else I know was self-taught (ALL of the mechanical stuff, including bikes), or working alongside my Dad & brothers in engineering, and OJT in commercial construction.

A good bit of it stuck, I can still perform adequately in any of the above areas.

I typically qualify any deep tech advise with a warning.
 
Well .... the ONE thing I am an expert in is the subject of my doctoral dissertation....." Step induced separation of a supersonic stream with turbulent boundary layer".
But it took over 100 credit hours of post graduate study to get a theoretical solution of that problem , so something was gained in the process.

The important thing is to know what you know, and know what it is you don't know.

Slick
 
hhh said:
Sorry, but what is Bill Gates "world class" in? Stealing, begging and borrowing software from competent people and then bloating it until it's useless? He's an asshole, born into a family of lawyers, that is mistakenly credited for far too many things that he wasn't responsible for, while profiting off of human misery.
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Expert in giving money to worthwhile causes.

Experts!
 
Though beeing a MSc, Mech. Eng. most usable knowledge I have is what I learned from fettling with motorcycles. Also useful for repairing tractors and programming embedded systems. Keeping a Lucas electrical system running makes designing multiprocessor hardware a piece of cake. But the only thing I think I'm good at is gas welding rusty thin sheet metal.
Forgotten to much to call me an expert. Completely clueless about statistics, national economy, quantum mechanics, politics and house cleaning. But able to keep workshop tidy.
 
My forum name says all you need to know about the level and quality of my expertise. Multiple degrees and years of work experience with absolutely no relevance to motorcycles. I have had a set of "Whitworth" wrenches for over 50 years and only God knows how much damage I've done over that period of time. Whether I've learned anything is for you to judge.
 
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Reactions: baz
I have always considered experts to be a pain. Most of them will tell you how they have it all figured out.
I have always admired those who have great insight and learned knowledge but never stop looking "deeper".
The day one decides they have it all figured out is the day they stop learning.

I am an expert at nothing but have a decent clue about more than a few things.
Motorcycles? Been riding and putting the wrench to them since i was 8 and the technology has flown past since I first stepped on to that Honda 50 in the back woods.
 
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I'm an expert at losing things I had in my hand 5 minutes ago. Also pretty good at putting things in places I can't recall 3 days later. And last but not least, well versed in going off topic.

The Norton is pretty simple. The collective hive mind here and the search function is better than a singular expert any day. Not hard to separate the wheat from the chaff when the advice starts flowing in a thread.

Well, time to get back to my latest engine rebuild and be the only master mechanic standing in my garage. Some heavy lifting awaits.
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
Yep I agree, he’s always been a grafter.
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Your reply had me look up the difference; it's subtle, but I found this:

"We now have both grafters and grifters. Grafters, as everyone knows, are those who separate us from our earned or unearned increment in the ordinary course of business. Grifters do not pursue the ordinary channels. It may be that they are afraid of the grafters, or it may be that they are just observing the common ethics of “working the other side of the street.” At any rate, grifters keep out of the legitimate channels of commerce and resort to unique and extraordinary practices. Grifting is far more sensational and spectacular than grafting, and commands less respect."

— The St. Louis Republic (St. Louis, MO), 17 Oct. 1904

"All the big grafters—or more properly speaking, “grifters”—were at work in the side show, where the “easy marks” throng."

— The Daily Republican (Rushville, IN), 29 Jun. 1908
 
Ah H3, not so I‘m afraid.

It was subtle, but not that subtle! ;) I rather sought to reject your definition and replace it with one of my own - using British slang.

Experts!

Never in the field of disinformation has so much been wrongly attributed by so many to so few.

Bill Gates Archives - FactCheck.org

www.factcheck.org www.factcheck.org

www.reuters.com

Fact Check-List of claims about Bill Gates includes falsities

Social media users have been sharing posts online that list claims about Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
I suggest that in life, what you achieve is only limited by your mindset. I am never defeatist. I only ever do what genuinely interests me. When I work, I like to get paid, but I never really care about how much I get paid. I still educate myself by watching Youtube videos.
On our radio in Australia, there is a weekly programme about investment and superannuation. I think many people are insane - our whole economy and sociaL systemis based upon gambling and debt - so why would you worry ? many people seem to like certainty - that is why they get sea-sick in boats. Their eyes tell them one thing and their ears tell them another. If you are conscious of the bigger picture, you do not get sea-sick
 
gortnipper said:
I just want to confirm my wife’s assertion this evening at dinner that she is the expert in all of our discussions, despite, well, anything.
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I can confirm that a couple of years after becoming a widower the wife training starts really wearing off and you become smarter and right much more often. Eleven years in and you don't remember all the specific times you were dumb and/or wrong. Would rather still have her, just saying...
 
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I made a mistake ONCE, I thought I made a mistake! .......

Wouldn't it be great if that were true?
 
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