issue168 (外行的意见是不是critical？超5分钟的样子)

forwwwUID: 154260

168.
Critical judgment of work in any given field has little value unless it comes from someone who is an expert in that field.


The speaker alleges that nonprofessional can hardly comment with high value and only experts can give critical judgment. I concede that experts really have erudite knowledge of their own professions which helps them judge precisely and insightfully; however, experts sometimes may neglect common sense and concern little about practicability, in which nonprofessional may contribute more than professions do.

It is no doubt experts are more professional and authoritative when they judge a certain work of their own field. There are many examples in our everyday life. Many people value critics' comments on books because they have more specific knowledge in rhetoric and judging a book while common people can hardly criticize the social meaning of a book and the book's influence on the society. We can also take calligraphy as an example: A nonprofessional who has little contact with calligraphy has few to do in front of a work of handwriting. Professions’ judgment is more valuable and critical at most of the time since they know the inner essence of their own field and they can give some insightful idea of the work.

However, sometimes professions focus too much on the technique and the specific criteria of a work so that they fail to judge a work in an overall view and even neglect the common sense. An example in point involves a painter and a cowboy. When a painter was painting a cat lolling in the sun with its eyes open widely, meanwhile a cowboy passed by, glanced at the painting and burst into laugh. The painter was very confused with the cowboy's strange behavior and asked him, "Isn't the cat vivid?" The cowboy replied straightforwardly, "Not of course, a cat never opens its eyes so widely in the afternoon." Common sense destroyed all the virtues of the painting. Experts, like the painter, are sometimes too absorbed in the work itself so that they may ignore common sense which common people can see easily. As a saying goes, "You cannot see a whole mountain because you are in the mountain." And professions are sometimes the people in the mountain.

Another aspect that professions can hardly pay attention to is the applicability of a work, especially in the field of technology and business. Take mobile phones as an example, professions judge the function of a mobile from the technological perspective: Whether it can receive sign anywhere? What is the standby time of it? Professions sometimes fail to consider the real utility of the multifunction of a mobile. A Japanese mobile company once rewarded a high school student in the mobile innovation competition because the student recommended a new function of mobiles which led to great commercial profit later. When the media asked the student where her innovative idea came from, she said that it naturally emerged into her mind because she found the function was badly needed when using mobiles. This example manifests that sometimes common people may have more insight in the applicability of a work than professions do.

In sum, professions particular knowledge about a certain field can really bring about many critical judgment of a work; however we cannot ignore the contributions of common people, who may be more aware of common faults. Moreover, experts should be willing to listen to non-professionals’ ideas about a work since their opinions may make the work more applicable and more useful.

bennywu320UID: 157820

The example is not so good. Actually, if the artist, especially painter, didn't know much about the natural phenomena and principal, he or she is not really an expert.

The third paragraph is well presented by illustrating the major weak points of the professions on understanding the application and up-date fashion of new inventions. That is also the difference between the generalists and specialists nowadays.

小丑鱼UID: 157722

bennywu320,you said:
"The example is not so good. Actually, if the artist, especially painter, didn't know much about the natural phenomena and principal, he or she is not really an expert."
但我觉得这恰好正是expert和amateur(noprofessional好象是adj 啊）的区别所在啊，不写这个文章也没法写了
但我觉得这篇文章所说的expert和amateur的区别不够本质，因为大多数专家还是有common sense的，forwww举的那个画家的例子应该说是很特殊了的吧。expert的优势在于他对本领域了解得更多（也就是forwww第二段所说的那些），但他不一定看到其它方面或者从其它角度来judge啊（其它角度不只包括applicability，还有其它领域或是对社会影响之类），另外就是expert容易受以前的理论或是思维定式的影响，我最记得学量子力学时老师说的德布洛意指出电子也具有波粒二象性时还是个历史学家，所以打得开思路，没有受其它人的影响。

小丑鱼UID: 157722

另外，我觉得外行的judgement的缺点也应该说说，毕竟他们的很多judgement都是有问题的，只是其中还有可取之处而已，这样讲了才显得全面些啊