Being an Expert

One of my favourite quotes from Jeff Atwood.

It troubles me greatly to hear that people see me as an expert or an authority, and not a fellow amateur. If I’ve learned anything in my career, it is that approaching software development as an expert, as someone who has already discovered everything there is to know about a given topic, is the one surest way to fail. Experts are, if anything, more suspect than the amateurs, because they’re less honest. You should question everything I write here, in the same way you question everything you’ve ever read online — or anywhere else for that matter. Your own research and data should trump any claims you read from anyone, no matter how much of an authority or expert you, I, Google, or the general community at large may believe them to be. Jeff Atwood

If you don’t already read Coding Horror, check it out, by far one of the best code-orientated blogs out there.