{"id":41838,"date":"2021-11-03T12:51:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T19:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41838"},"modified":"2021-11-03T12:51:47","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T19:51:47","slug":"how-to-become-an-expert-in-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41838","title":{"rendered":"How to Become an Expert in Something New"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source;\u00a0https:\/\/insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu\/article\/take-5-become-an-expert?utm_source=subscriber&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TIL112021&pnespid=tuF4GiBFMLwUyObbvjK7QpTRsBenRpltNviw3uk5pR5mHBac7tMoa8LJLLXnzVwjqSWIO4sK<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out, there\u2019s a \u201cspecial sauce\u201d that can help you get there. But expertise can also come with a curse.<\/h3>\n
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BASED ON THE RESEARCH OF<\/div>\n

Jan A. Van Mieghem<\/a><\/p>\n

Brian Uzzi<\/a><\/p>\n

Luis Rayo<\/a><\/p>\n

Lu Liu<\/a><\/p>\n

Jillian Chown<\/a><\/p>\n

Dashun Wang<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew D. Rocklage<\/a><\/p>\n

Derek D. Rucker<\/a><\/p>\n

Loran Nordgren<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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So you want to become an expert in something new. Good for you! But how will you get started? And what can you expect along your journey?<\/p>\n

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1.\u00a0Learn from Others<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

Conventional wisdom says it can be useful to look over someone\u2019s shoulder when you\u2019re learning something new. So a newbie jogger might turn to more experienced runners for tips, while a novice programmer might observe how more experienced programmers handled similar code.<\/p>\n

But is learning by viewing really better than learning by doing? Or is your best bet to just dive in: to just run that 5K or labor over that chunk of code yourself?<\/p>\n

Observing others can be a benefit, according to research from\u00a0Jan Van Mieghem<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Itai Gurvich<\/a>, both operations professors at Kellogg. But there\u2019s a catch: it\u2019s only better to learn by observation when the person you\u2019re observing is a true veteran.<\/p>\n

The team scoured data on the behavior of thousands of eBay analysts and found that those who observed code from veteran coders had the advantage\u2014but analysts who viewed the work of less experienced coders, even those with excellent reputations, struggled more than analysts who simply went it alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work seems to indicate that there is huge value for the experienced people to showcase and share their work,\u201d says Van Mieghem.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Find a Mentor<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

If you want to become a superstar in your new field, having a mentor\u2014a veteran\u2014is key. But all mentors are not created equal. So what does good mentorship look like?<\/p>\n

According to research from Kellogg\u2019s\u00a0Brian Uzzi<\/a>, it looks like expertise \u2026 and then a little something extra.<\/p>\n

Uzzi and his colleagues looked at over 37,000 scientists, mentees, and the more than 1 million papers that they produced between 1960 and 2017. From this massive trove of data, they found that students who studied under a prizewinning scientist\u2014even before that scientist won a prize\u2014were almost six times more likely to become superstars in their field than equally talented students of non-prizewinners. In other words, these prizewinning mentors were able to pass along what Uzzi calls the \u201cspecial sauce\u201d to their students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Most surprising of all: the\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0successful students were those who ultimately went on to work in a different subject area than their prizewinning mentor. This suggests that the \u201cspecial sauce\u201d isn\u2019t just about sharing skills. If that were the case, students who continued to study the same subject area would have the edge. Instead, Uzzi believes these mentors are passing along tacit knowledge: how to think through research questions, brainstorm, collaborate, and so on.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Expect to Put In Some Grunt Work<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

Of course, good mentorship doesn\u2019t come cheap. Or rather, it shouldn\u2019t. After all, expertise is worth a lot, says\u00a0Luis Rayo<\/a>, a professor of strategy at Kellogg. So what\u2019s a trainee to do?<\/p>\n

An apprentice sushi chef could, for instance, attempt to buy an expert\u2019s time. But given the hours required to develop true expertise, that could get quite expensive. \u201cYou can, in principle, tell the master, \u2018Drop everything, stop cooking for others, close your restaurant, just train me,\u2019\u201d Rayo explains. \u201cAnd then this famous chef will say, \u2018Okay, but you\u2019re going to have to pay me five million dollars.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Or perhaps the trainee could offer to pay the top chef back later in her career, once she\u2019s established a successful restaurant. But at that point, she already has all of the skills: What\u2019s to prevent her from turning her back on her one-time mentor?<\/p>\n

Instead, novices and experts have landed on an apprenticeship system, where novices are able to glean years\u2019 worth of experience from experts, and in return, experts benefit from their inexpensive labor\u2014and, in particular, the menial tasks that don\u2019t require a lot of expertise out of the gate.<\/p>\n

Rayo built a mathematical model to better understand the dynamics of these systems. He found that, in \u201cprofessions where there\u2019s a considerable amount of knowledge to transfer, the model predicts that you\u2019ll tend to observe large amounts of menial work early in the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Explore and Exploit<\/a><\/h2>\n

Congrats! You landed a mentor, have put in your time, and are well on your way to success. But what will it take to reach the top of your game?<\/p>\n

Kellogg professors\u00a0Dashun Wang<\/a>,\u00a0Jillian Chown<\/a>, and\u00a0Nima Dehmamy<\/a>, as well as Lu Liu, a recently graduated PhD student at Kellogg, analyzed millions of works by thousands of artists, directors, and scientists. They found that experts reach their hottest streaks of career success after a period in which they first explore a range of creative options and then exploit a single option, improving over time.<\/p>\n

For example, director Peter Jackson made films that fell into horror, comedy, drama, and other genres (reflecting a period of exploration) before hitting it much bigger with the\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0fantasy franchise. Analysis of painter Jackson Pollock\u2019s work, similarly, showed exploration of a wide range of styles before the focused \u201cdrip period\u201d (1946\u20131950) that elevated him to global fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be the combination of exploration followed by exploitation: experimenting in different areas, learning different domains and approaches, then really hunkering down and developing that body of high-impact work,\u201d says Chown.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0But Expertise Has Its Downsides, Too<\/a><\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019re an expert, it\u2019s hard to go back. For the most point, this is great.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all roses. For instance, once you become really good at something, you lose the ability to view it from the perspective of a nonexpert.\u00a0Steve Franconeri<\/a>, a professor of psychology at Northwestern with a courtesy appointment at Kellogg, calls this the \u201ccurse of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The curse of expertise is why an expert viewing a complex dashboard or infographic, for instance, may be able to read it instantly\u2014and fail to realize that it is absolute gibberish to everyone else. So rather than trusting your own expert judgment on whether something you\u2019ve produced is sensible to the masses, you\u2019ll need to rely on other novices.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another downside to keep in mind: becoming an expert could dim your passion for the things that made you want to become an expert in the first place.<\/p>\n

Kellogg professors\u00a0Loran Nordgren<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Derek Rucker<\/a>\u00a0have found that novice movie buffs, beer lovers, and wine aficionados tend to use more emotionality in their reviews than those who have had more formal training.<\/p>\n

Why? Expertise provides a cognitive structure and an architecture to analyze information. This structure can be helpful, for example, by giving us similar criteria to use in evaluations and thus producing consistent evaluations that aren\u2019t laden with emotion. However, as people apply this cognitive structure, it changes the nature of their experience. For example, a sumptuous wine is no longer just a wine to enjoy, but one to be dissected, analyzed, and compared with others on its quality.<\/p>\n

So become an expert, by all means. But just don\u2019t forget: hobbies are fun too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source;\u00a0https:\/\/insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu\/article\/take-5-become-an-expert?utm_source=subscriber&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TIL112021&pnespid=tuF4GiBFMLwUyObbvjK7QpTRsBenRpltNviw3uk5pR5mHBac7tMoa8LJLLXnzVwjqSWIO4sK Turns out, there\u2019s a \u201cspecial...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41839,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41838\/revisions\/41839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}