The general opinion on this board is that the people who post here are at least, if not significantly more intelligent or knowledgeable than the average poster on other message boards. I don’t post on a lot of other boards and there is the obvious skew in favor of people who understand and are comfortible with technology so I cannot (or chose not to) verify this claim. It seems like people here come from all kinds of backgrounds and education levels so I will put the question out there:
What credentials do you have that knowing nothing else about you, a person can assume that you know what you are talking about?
Obviously this is very subjective and I will leave it up to individuals to decide what they think those creditials should be. Typical examples would be:
-Exceptional academic achievement - 4.0 GPA (real majors please), PhD in Astrophysics, a Wharton MBA or Harvard Law degree, perfect SAT scores, graduating college at 12, whatever
-Measureable intellectual ability - 250 IQ, Rainman or John Nash levels of intellectual superpowers
-Exceptional professional achievement - Own your own successful company, success in a highly competitive field like medicine or banking, recognized industry expert
-Amassed large amounts of wealth (legit or otherwise which might make you a different kind of expert)
-Numerous patents or inventions
-Publications
-Awards or scholarships
Basically anything that proves to people that they are listening to an expert and not some guy at work on his lunch break or a bored college student blowing off homework.
I think I have 1 or 3 things that might qualify as “worth mentioning” but I gotta tell you, I would feel weird doing so - it feels too much like bragging.
Sometimes during a post, I will cite my background to offer context for my response, but that feels different - citing one thing for one issue, not just listing my Greatness™ for all to see.
Personally, what I care about more are the cites people list - so regardless of the person’s achievements, they are using known facts to make whatever argument they are putting forward. The more someone does that, the more I am inclined to say “hey - they know their shit!”
my $.02.
I’m smart enough to know that if the issue is important to you, you shouldn’t take anyone’s word for it, regardless of their credentials, unless that person has proven trustworthy in his judgments on several issues that you are personally involved with. Even then, history shows endless examples of people with impeccable credentials making pronouncements that turn out to be disastrously wrong. In the end, if you trust someone and that person turns out to be wrong, it’s your butt on the line.
Then again, if you want to know the answer to a simple question such as whether gravity and acceleration are the same, you can trust me when I say they are not, because I have a doctorate in mechanics.
I object to the idea that it takes an IQ of 250 to fight ignorance. I don’t have to be smarter than everybody, just the ignorant people.
However, to play along with this, my areas of expertise…
I have a B.A. in performance on the Tuba.
I am a homebrewer and have made several dozen batches of beer without a single failed batch.
I have been running D&D for 26 years.
I won a spelling bee in High School.
So, without any of those (or anything else), you cannot be considered smart on message boards? Just wondering because I know people with 4.0 GPA’s, Suma Cum Laude and all that, that are worthless in a lot of areas of expertise. The same goes for those with very high IQ’s, entrepreneurs, rich folks, etc…
I think the answer to this would be experience and results. If you say product A is badass, I want to see how long you’ve been using it, and what can you show me that you’ve done with it. This is why I really don’t care what education these pundits have on television. You can be a Harvard graduate, and be completely full of it. Where as the janitor for Harvard might have something worth listening to.
Like** Hypno-Toad**, I am so good looking that whatever I say, people take as the truth. My voice is so compelling that listeners go slack-jawed in awe when I start to speak. I am also tidy, devout, truthful, and honest. Most of all, I am an early riser!
Well, once in Mrs. Hamilton’s class I drew a picture of an aardvark that earned me 2 gold stars.
Seriously, if you want to know me, look in my profile. I have no reason to make anything up. I have a PhD in Environmental Psychology, and MA in the same and a BA in Gen. Psych. I teach at a small Liveral Arts College in New England. I don’t give the school out because I know several posters who attend and I believe it would be a conflict of interest. Also, the boards allow otherwise intellectual, academic, insanely smart people to goof off on occasion with a certain degree of anonymity…
I have a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science fron UC Berkeley. (This makes me very smug around my sister’s tree-hugging self-righteous hippy-dippy friends who have no friggin’ clue what they’re talking about.)
I got a perfect score on the math sections of the PSAT, the SAT and the GRE.
I raised a dog that is so good, strangers offer to buy her from me off the street and my relatives argue about who will get her if I die - does that count?
I have a bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and 18+ years of experience working in the nuclear power industry.
Same here: whether I know what I’m talking about depends entirely on the subject. If I claim to know something that I didn’t learn from a citeable source, I will offer some kind of backup: e.g., I know about first aid because I am American Red Cross certified and because I’ve volunteered at various hospitals over the years. That said, I’ve mentioned my writing experience/background in one or two grammar threads, but in at least one of them my credentials didn’t make me correct. (:D)
(heh…on preview, the big grin inside parentheses kinda looks like a spider…)
I have an Associate Degree of Arts in General Education from a local community college. Which demonstrates that I know very little in many different fields of study
