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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Anything Goes! > Want to become "the expert" on something? Here's how | Forum Quick Jump
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crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
      
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4711
| Posted 5/9/2008 10:19 AM (GMT -4) |   | Here's a little experiment for you to try.
Pick a topic. Any topic. It doesn't have to be a topic you know anything about either. In fact, you can make it up if you want.
Now, create a list of 'facts' about the topic. If you are making something up, then make up the facts. If you are picking a known topic, find some facts and then make up some others that fit in with the ones you found.
Now start telling these facts about the topic to people. Tell your family, friends, co-workers. Make sure you state them with the right tone of voice. Conviction is critical. Your listeners must believe by your body language and tone of voice that you KNOW what you are talking about. This will make them believe you. Next, start posting on the internet in public places. Write detailed essays, post on public forums and make sure you aren't belligerent but simply 'informative'. Maintain that strong conviction no matter what.
Eventually, if you talk long enough, and loud enough, to enough people you will find people quoting your facts (including the ones you made up) and citing YOU as the authority. They'll be serious too. The reason for this? Most people don't check every fact they are told. They simply believe them if the speaker has what appears to be sincere conviction. And those that DO check... if they can find a few of the things you said in some text book or supported by some other 'authority', will assume that everything else you said is gospel too. And they'll repeat what they heard you say with the same sincere conviction, convincing other people of the same misinformation.
(think about that the next time YOU go to quote some 'authority') | | Back to Top | | |
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MysticWino
anarchist fringe monkey boddhisatva
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1601
| Posted 5/9/2008 11:22 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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Jaqhama
Adventurer
Date Joined Oct 2007
Total Posts : 457
| Posted 5/10/2008 2:49 AM (GMT -4) | |
crystalwizard said...
Here's a little experiment for you to try.
Pick a topic. Any topic. It doesn't have to be a topic you know anything about either. In fact, you can make it up if you want.
Now, create a list of 'facts' about the topic. If you are making something up, then make up the facts. If you are picking a known topic, find some facts and then make up some others that fit in with the ones you found.
Now start telling these facts about the topic to people. Tell your family, friends, co-workers. Make sure you state them with the right tone of voice. Conviction is critical. Your listeners must believe by your body language and tone of voice that you KNOW what you are talking about. This will make them believe you. Next, start posting on the internet in public places. Write detailed essays, post on public forums and make sure you aren't belligerent but simply 'informative'. Maintain that strong conviction no matter what.
Eventually, if you talk long enough, and loud enough, to enough people you will find people quoting your facts (including the ones you made up) and citing YOU as the authority. They'll be serious too. The reason for this? Most people don't check every fact they are told. They simply believe them if the speaker has what appears to be sincere conviction. And those that DO check... if they can find a few of the things you said in some text book or supported by some other 'authority', will assume that everything else you said is gospel too. And they'll repeat what they heard you say with the same sincere conviction, convincing other people of the same misinformation.
(think about that the next time YOU go to quote some 'authority')
This process seems to work perfectly well for most politicians.
(You're not thinking of running for office are you CW?) 
You can read some of my stories here:
Swamp Story. Down South. Florida Haze.Wild Justice...
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Rob Mancebo
Adept
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 907
| Posted 5/14/2008 2:56 AM (GMT -4) | |
Anthony G Williams said...
2. Once you become familiar with a subject, you realise that almost all books about it contain errors, as Richard says. What is amusing is tracking the errors back to source, because they often get repeated over and over by authors borrowing from each other. When I point out some of these errors in discussion forums, I am often told "But it has to be right; so many authors include it!"  - Oh yes. Even well known, highly reguarded authors pass on mistakes. Sometimes even primary sources contain mistakes--people don't always understand what they see.
- This is why we can all have such wonderful, scholorly arguements . . . 
- We all have to be careful because common usage can change true meanings. I'd bet not one person in a thousand knows that what people call 'Celtic knotwork' isn't celtic at all. It's Irish Folk art which is actually inspired from the Norse. Or how many folks (sadly, even trained soldiers) think a 'clip' and a 'magazine' are the same thing?
- If only a few people know what a word really means, does it still mean the same thing? So, if so many authors mis-use or mis-interperate a point of history or a word, does the meaning actualyl change????
- A scary thought that ignorance is so powerful as to drag language and history down to the compatence of the lowest user. 
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Anthony G Williams
Greybeard
Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 403
| Posted 5/14/2008 4:04 AM (GMT -4) | |
- If only a few people know what a word really means, does it still mean the same thing? So, if so many authors mis-use or mis-interperate a point of history or a word, does the meaning actualyl change????
- A scary thought that ignorance is so powerful as to drag language and history down to the compatence of the lowest user. Oh yes, that happens a lot - especially in English, the most anarchic of languages (French has a committee to decide these things). Just consider the word "gay", for instance. It used to mean "light-hearted, frivolous"; then it became appropriated for "homosexual"; and now (amongst UK kids anyway) it has become derogatory expression detached from either meaning ("Ugh - that's really gay!").
There are of course some notable transatlantic divisions on meanings of words and phrases, too. I was at a conference in the UK at which a US speaker caused great confusion by referring to a "shop". Eventually someone twigged and said "Oh, you mean workshop!". In the UK, a "shop" is a small retail outlet, which is called a "store" in the USA, which in the UK means a place to keep things until they are needed...
I also rather like the phrase meaning that you really don't care about something, which is "I couldn't care less" in the UK and "I could care less" in the USA - which are logically completely opposite!
On the technical side I am intrigued that the West has always called Kalashikov's 7.62mm assault rifle the "AK-47". This is actually the designation of the pre-production gun, of which a few hundred were made for army testing between 1947 and 1949. Various changes were made before the gun was formerly adopted as the "AK" in 1949, and in modified form later as the "AKM". In fact, virtually every Kalashnikov in this calibre you're likely to find is an AKM, but the West calls 'em all "AK-47". Not a lot of people know that, even if they're interested in guns.
And of course there's the term "shrapnel", which refers to a specific form of artillery shell much used in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but has been adopted to refer to any shell or bomb fragments.
There are lots, lots more - and the process is constantly going on.
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