What is an expert?

Each day that goes by, each work hour I spend sitting in front of a computer trying to create solutions to problems clients bring, I learn more.  I learn from you, from bloggers, from colleagues and clients.  I learn from books, websites, white papers and other documents I’ve accumulated over the years.  Lately, I’ve stumbled across some materials while researching some items that came from self proclaimed “experts”.  These materials were just flatly inaccurate and I started wondering, what exactly does the term “expert” mean?

Thinking about it some more (probably way too much, actually), I started trying to define what and “expert” really is.  My view of an expert has always been someone who knows all there is to know about a subject.  My definition has always just stopped at that point, but lately, I’ve been thinking about it in more philosophical terms.  Taking that definition, one could come to the conclusion that an “expert” couldn’t learn anymore about a subject.  If that were true, is there anyone on this planet that is naive enough to think they can’t learn anymore about something?  Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

Now I realize that people claim to be experts on a variety of things.  The field of Information Technology is filled with people that consider themselves experts on all kinds of subjects.  Some are considered by many others to be experts in their particular field, and rightfully so.  There are people out there with tremendous knowledge, skill and experience.  I attended a DevConnections conference last year and met a lot of these people – most of them were presenters, but some were attendees.  The one thing I notice about all of them was that they were all students of their trade – extremely bright, curious, determined and exited people that loved what they do.  Talking to them, I never got the sense that they knew everything about their particular subject.  What I did get was an eagerness to learn more about it.

According to the definition of “expert” stated earlier, I know I’ll never become one.  No one will.  Yes, there will be some people that will think they know everything about something, but that just proves that they are NOT experts.  My new view of what the term “expert” means is modeled after the type of people I met at the conference.  They may know a lot about their subject – they may even have created it.  But they will always be the first to admit that they don’t know everything about it.  It’s these kind of people that I look up to, because they will always be the ones that strive to know more.  And, with that attitude, they always will.