I do a lot of things that are not in my line of work such as carpentry, plumbing, minor auto repairs, construction, and other such pursuits. As well, I read a lot of book – mostly nonfiction – with the lion’s share being history books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I maintain a healthy level of humility in my professional pursuits, but I make a point of ensuring that I maintain a higher level of humility about my skills in my non-professional pursuits. I accept that an expert carpenter can do what I do in a fraction of the time and, in most cases, deliver a better product. I consider myself an amateur in this and other hobbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I consider myself an amateur historian of the Civil War. I have read hundreds of books on the this war, and various aspects surrounding it. I have not done original research, and I do not possess an encyclopedic knowledge of any particular point of interest. I generally defer to experts in discussions (except where the point of contention is opinion rather than fact). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find it strange that such a large fraction of society refuses to defer to experts in such items of importance as health or science. I understand that many individuals have been deluded by an organized campaign to undermine public understanding and acceptance of science (see Merchants of Doubt<\/em> by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway). But it is still hard to fathom how a person who would never go to his plumber cousin to treat a broken bone will seek advice from that plumber cousin on epidemiology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I do a lot of things that are not in my line of work such as carpentry, plumbing, minor auto repairs, construction, and other such pursuits. As well, I read a lot of book – mostly nonfiction – with the lion’s share being history books. I maintain a healthy level of humility in my professional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1424,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.desertscope.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}