We live in a nation of experts. Every day we see studies from scientists and sociologists whose main conclusion is that they need more grant money. Mass media is a daily deluge of pundits whose main skill is sounding good on TV and radio. Today, with the help of Foreign Policy we are Hatin' On all the experts who make living by saying stuff because it sounds good. Check out how wrong these authorities can be.Here's a little gem from BusinessWeek, on Jan. 2, 2008, “New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will enter the Presidential race in February, after it becomes clear which nominees will get the nod from the major parties.” A short while later, Bloomberg announced he was again running for mayor.
Think your bowl picks have been bad? Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006, William Kristol said this on Fox News; "Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I’ll predict that right now.”
If you think about it, Kristol was technically right. Obama didn't beat Clinton in a single primary. He beat her in many of them.
And who could forget p with Jim Cramer's now infamous response to a viewer email on CNBC’s Mad Money. March 11, 2008, Cramer screamed "Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money out!" March 16, the company was toast.
Hard though is to belive, just because someone is on television or writes opinion columns in the newspaper, they don't nessessarily know what they are talking about. Writing for a newspaper, for instance, just means you are a good at writing. That is, stringing words together in a way that people enjoy reading does not necessary offer any special insight into human nature -- yours truly included. As to being on television, that requires loads of ambition, a willingness to self-promote and the ability to project personality on camera. Again, there is a question of correlation. What's the connection between being telegenic and actually having a clue about life? The two seem tangentially related at best.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on pundits. Even smart people can make mistakes. Like Bill Gates. January 2004, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Bill Gates declared that spam would be dead in 24 months. You might have noticed, it hasn't quite worked out that way. Bill Gates will be dead before spam is.
