The Expert Stage: Why It's Called "Expert"

0:00Hi there, just to say this is a short snippet from this week's main episode which was published on Wednesday as always. If you want the full episode you can find it just below this one. So why is it called the expert stage? So basically this stage, it's trying to define its identity free from the groups that it was really identified with and defined by it at the conformist level. It wants to stand out, it wants to acquire unique traits and capabilities and then use it as a way to define itself as different from the previous in-group or the in-groups. Right and learning is how it does this. So the meaning for the expert, their meaning-making process really centers around their knowledge. It's like they are meaningful and they are useful

1:04and their life is, you know, life is as it should be if they are knowledgeable and if they are in no about a certain subject. So the expert loves acquiring knowledge and being in the no. It's identity and its sense of self-worth actually depends on knowledge and expertise. So it's like their identity is fused with their knowledge. Now this is like a crucial point to understanding the expert. The mind hooks on to knowledge at this level. In fact there's this wonderful quote from Susan Kudroyter in her paper on the nine levels paper which I'd encourage you to read which is quote no one can ever tell an expert anything they don't already know end quote because the expert doesn't just love acquiring knowledge because

2:07really anyone can love acquiring knowledge any stage of development but the difference here is that they're identified with it and the whole identity depends on it, right? So when you question an expert's knowledge you are also questioning their identity and you're questioning their worth okay because these things are all fused. Learning is how it defines itself as independent and as unique. So it gets very touchy when it's knowledge is questioned or contradicted or brought into a brought into doubt. The expert is very good at completing tasks within its chosen areas of expertise because it's so good at acquiring knowledge that inevitably it will become good at things. So it's a bit different from the conformist in this sense because a conformist

3:07will kind of just do what they are told to do. An expert has a little bit more independence because it's competence and it's sort of initiative is more knowledge driven. It's driven by what it's interested in what it's knowledgeable about and what it likes accumulating knowledge about. The conformist doesn't have that so much. The expert rejects traditional knowledge in favour of professional knowledge, trade secrets, peer groups, reference books, science, authorities, experts and so on and so forth. So it can become competent with less hand holding because it's not dependent on some tradition where as a conformist will just will just refer to its in-group, it will refer to its immediate surround for its information. Whereas the expert goes a step beyond that. It questions its immediate surround and it goes to

4:10the actual people who have experience in the field or knowledge of the field or expertise. Hi there just to say this is a short snippet from this week's main episode which was published on Wednesday as always. If you want to fill episode you can find it just below this one.