The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> how to become an expert...

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Wednesday, February 29 2012, 14:49:01 (UTC)
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...for one thing you never claim you know it all...you just lay out in detail the steps by which you came about whatever knowledge it is you are presenting...to become an "expert" on modern assyrian claims, Dr Joseph had to earn a doctorate from Princeton in modern MidEast history...this MEANS something. It doesn't mean you are holier than thou, or better than the next man...it means that at Princeton you will find those professors who have attained tenure by being authors themselves, doing research and staying current on the latest findings. It also means that as a university and not merely a college, Princeton has a separate library for each of its fields of studies, rather than one library where all books on all subjects are crammed...this means many more books, and rare ones too, on any given topic...this has consequences for scholarship etc.

...it means you spend hours and days, and nights too, reading these books and discussing with mentors and professors, it means finding articles and attending lectures, even about subjects and views you may not personally approve...but, if you want that degree you have to study ALL sides, and not just what is personally pleasing to you...it means writing and writing and writing, and not your own personal opinions but analyzing what authors and experts in the field have said...you may analyze but even then you have to use other authors and whatever has been known in the field till then...you can't simply say what YOU think...not yet and not for a long to come, well after you can show you are in complete mastery of ALL the literature on the subject.

...what do you do if you're Aprim, or Maggie, or Rosie-Malek and a hundred other amateurs who "know who we are"? Well, usually, that's enough by itself. Your views, and those of your grandparents, are all you need to know. No need to check anything, to waste sleepless hours in some library or at your desk pouring over all that has been written and learned before you...you can simply pick up those other books, if you even bother, and go..."don't like that"......."don;t agree with that"...."that's not what grammy said"....."Qasha Rukhtapoulitous said something quite different from what this fool, Dr Durant says"...and so on. After doing your "research" you can write your "book" filling it with the things you heard that you like, and discarding anything you didn;t like, assuming you ever bothered to read anything or listen to anything that didn;t conform to granny's teachings in the first place.

That's just a little of the difference between the "one book" of Dr Joseph and the many "books" of Aprim and the rest.

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The full topic:

how to become an expert... pancho - Wednesday, February 29 2012, 14:49:01 (UTC)
- this usually elicits.... pancho - 02/29 14:52

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