Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Reading "The Death of Expertise" on a Train: And meeting an idiot


Yesterday I was on a train from Philadelphia to Lancaster. I was near the end of the last car with a half dozen other people in the car. I was reading the book "The Death of Expertise" for a discussion a week from Sunday.
Halfway through the 75-minute trip, a guy in his 50s who was from Lancaster walked toward the end of the car. As he walked past me he could see me wearing a mask. He was not wearing one. He stopped and said "The Amish lived here for hundreds of years without wearing masks....." I stood and told him to get the fuck away from me that I did not need his idiocy or his germs. He left.
I defended expertise. It was fun.
The book is about people with arrogance, untroubled by any actual learning, who believe themselves experts in anything. I know I am going to like this book.

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